


The Sun and The Moon

by Th4t0n3T1m3L0rd



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-03-18 07:19:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3561011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Th4t0n3T1m3L0rd/pseuds/Th4t0n3T1m3L0rd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their first meeting at Ollivander's was a fateful one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Laura, Dear, You're a Witch

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, this is the first time I am ever actually posting my writing so... yeah... The first chapter is gonna be kind long but I don't think the rest will be this long. I would also like to note that story will go a little faster than how I am pacing the beginning and it will be more of a lifetime at Hogwarts rather than them only being in first year. See my favorite part of any fantasy book is that funny and cute build-up in the first few chapters cause it so light and funny and airy. That's why the first few chapters are gonna be of them in first year. It will speed up though.

Laura was sitting in her room reading a fantasy novel when she heard a knock on her door and the jiggling of the door knob. She looked up from her chapter to see her dad peeking his head in and looking around the room. His eye eventually land on her and he smiles wryly, as though worried. “Hey, sweetie, can we talk?”

She nods and dog-ears the page she’s on. Laying the book beside her. She then sits up and looks at her father curiously. moving her legs to her chest to make room from him to sit on the small bed. He complies by sitting at the foot of her bed and turning to face her. She smiles warmly, trying to calm him down since his worry was starting to radiate towards her. “What’s up, dad?”

“So, um, as you know your mother died when you were very young.” She could now tell why he was worried. Bringing up Mom was something they didn’t do. It hurt too much for both of them. She felt a small jab near her heart and swallowed the pain as she listened to her father. “Well there was something that she was never able to tell you… I knew about it for a while, but never brought it up because I wasn’t sure about you until recent events. And, well, it was kind of hard to talk about it in general but now I kind of have to and-”

“Dad, you’re rambling,” Laura said quietly. It was something that ran in the family. She knew it. Mom used to ramble. Laura did it too. Her father nodded and took in a deep breath and held it for a second.

“Laura, dear, you’re a witch.”

She sat there in shock for a few seconds and shook her head. After a few minutes of trying to process what he had just said she dismissed it as a joke. “Very funny.”

“No, honey, it’s true.” He took another long breath before continuing, “Your mother was a witch and, well, her power was passed onto you.”

Laura sat there in shock, trying to absorb the information. She looked up at her father and gave a weak look as though she wanted fortification.

“Remember last month before school ended? The two boys who were picking on you on your way to school? How you don’t remember what happened? Well from what other people say is that you got really upset and told them to go away and they didn’t. Apparently you snapped at them and they were pushed to the ground about five feet away from you. As though a giant gust of wind came from your body and pushed them. After that you fainted.” She listened to him weakly. He rambled for a few more minute but she wasn’t paying attention, she was looking at the palms of her hands and her attention snapped back to him and she looked back up to him. “Anyways, thats when I knew, when I knew you were like your mother. So I got into contact with on of her old friends, uh, magic friends. She agreed to explain more about the ‘wizarding world’ as she put it, and take you shopping.”

Laura looked at her father curiously and cocked an eyebrow at him confusedly, “Shopping? Why would I need to go shopping with her?”

“Well, uh, you got a letter in the mail the other day, from a school called Hogwarts. It’s where your mother went. You are going to start going there at the beginning of the school year.” He answered, he gave her a sympathetic look, as though he was sorry. She could only look at him in disbelief. He did all this without her knowing? To be honest she was still trying to absorb the witch part. But now she was going to a whole different school and a whole new life. She was very confused, too much so to be upset.

Laura didn’t notice that her father had gotten up and was standing next to her. She only recognized that he was there when he put his arms around the small girl and pulled her close. She didn’t hug back, normally she would but at this moment she couldn’t. He held her for a while and pulled away. She looked up at him and he smiled down at her and then spoke, “Another thing. All those books your mother left behind that you love to read? They were her books from the wizard world. She wanted to keep them in case that you did turn out to have magical powers. That’s why I let you read them, and reread them. So at least it not like you’re going into this without any knowledge. And your mother’s friend with be here tomorrow.”

Laura nodded and watched as her father left her. Most likely to make hot chocolate. It was her favorite drink and it calmed her down in stressful situations. She picked up the book she had been reading. The cover said Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She looked at the foot of her bed and noticed a piece of parchment that looked slightly worn. She picked it up and noticed that it was a school supply list for Hogwarts. So her father wasn’t lying. She read through the books parts and noticed that she had read just about every book on the list, mostly likely more than once.

The books that her mother left behind were the only thing she had of her. So ever since she could read she would read through those books. Her mother had written little side notes in each on on different pages that, when she was younger, never made any sense because it had always sounded like fake mumbo jumbo. But now it made sense because they were notes she had taken in class. She looked at the list and walked to her book shelf, looking through the shelves of different books, she was able to find everyone and set them on her bed. She made a note to reread them so she wouldn’t look like a complete newb when she goes to Hogwarts.

She then thought to herself about how she was going to a new school and her whole body filled with a feeling that was like a mix between curiosity, happiness and terror. She was curious of what is would be like, a school filled with witches and wizards and magic. And she was happy to be leaving her old school. No one liked her no matter how much she tried to make friends. They all picked on her and she hated it. But she was also scared. Scared to leave her father. Scared that what if no one liked her because she was raised with no knowledge of the wizard world. Scared they might not have internet. She laughed to herself at the last thought and watched the door creep open, her father walked back in and handed her a cup of cocoa. 

She smiled as she saw the whipped cream on top with the sprinkle of cinnamon, it was her favorite way to drink it. She sat on the bed and sipped happily as her father sat down at her desk and pulled an envelope and a long box out of no where. “I, uh, forgot about this. This envelope contains a key to a bank vault in the wizard world. It has money in it that you are to use to buy all the things you need. I’m not sure how much, but it should be enough. The other thing is…”

He handed Laura the envelope and he focused on the box, carefully opening it up and revealing a very ornate piece of wood. “This was your mother’s wand. I don’t think it still works, but your mother wanted you to have it when you were older, as a keepsake. Also, if they ask for the wand at the bank you have to give them this. I wouldn’t suggest using it, or at least thats what your mothers friend said. Something about some wands not adjusting well to new owners and to wait till we get you one of your own.”

He carefully handed the wand-in-box to her and she cautiously took it, looking it over with great curiosity. Her father nodded and left her alone with the new items. She set her cocoa down on the nightstand and examined the wand carefully. Smiling a little when she took it out of the box and held it in her hand. She smiled as she whipped it around and pointed it towards a cup on the window sill and a flash of bright blue came out and shattered the cup. Her eyes widened and she slowly put the wand back in the box. She laid the box on the nightstand and brought the cocoa back to her lips, sipping on it at she began to read the book she was reading before.

She was like that for a while. Just enjoying herself before slowly falling asleep. She finally closed her eyes for the last time of the night and slipped into a blissful rest. 

~~~~~~~~

Laura woke up with a knock to her door and her father voice. “Hey, hun, your mother’s friend will be here within the hour. So, uh, get ready.”

Laura lazily got up and drug her body to the bathroom. Taking a quick shower and blowing out her dirty blonde hair. She then brushed her teeth and went back to her room. She drug through her closet before settling on a gray slightly oversized sweater and blue jeans. She wasn’t sure where she was going to get her supplies for school but she knew she wanted to look nice for her Mother’s friend. She heard her father yell for her and she smiled, running down the stairs.

She found them in the living room. The woman’s back was to her and her father was facing her. He smiled and gestured for her to enter happily. She walked over to her father and sat down on the ottoman besides the chair he was sitting in. She looked at the woman and was amazed. She was tall, extremely so. Just sitting down she was already taller than Laura, but that wasn’t really hard to do, Laura was very short for her age. She also had bright red hair that was very long and straight, as though fire was straightened out with a rolling pin and attached to her head. She was wearing what looked like normalish clothing, a long black dress and boots, underneath a black cloak. The woman smiled warmly at laura. Giving her a nod and saying happily, “Hello, you must be Laura, I’m Matilda, Matilda Lawrence. But you can just call me Mat.”

Laura nodded, her voice was caught in her throat and she must have looked like a idiot. Her father nudged her after a few seconds and her voice released itself. “H-Hello! Yes I’m Laura.”

Mat laughed whole heartedly and looked over Laura, “Well you’re father has told me so much about you. You and my daughter would probably be great friends!”

Laura’s eyes widen and her mouth dropped a little at the use of daughter and friends in the same sentence. “Y-You have a daughter?”

Mat laughed again and nodded, “Oh yes, and four sons. Her name is Danny, she’s a bit older than you, she will be entering her third year at Hogwarts this year. But yes. She’s a Gryffindor, as was I and your mother.” Laura cocked her head to left, unsure of what the word Gryffindor meant. Mat picked up on it and smiled, “Don’t worry, I’ll explain it to you later.”

Laura nodded and looked to her dad who seemed just as lost at Laura. Mat only smiled and stood up, “Well, I think its time we go shopping. What do you think, Laura?”

She nodded and looked to her dad who gave an encouraging smile and nodded. She turned towards Mat and nodded, “Y-Yes! Of course, but I need to get a few things from my room, if that is okay?”

Mat laughed and nodded. Laura jumped up and ran to her room. Grabbing her knapsack and carefully putting the wand box and key in it, as well as a wallet and the book she was reading. She ran down as quickly as she could and Mat smiled when she saw her. Mat told her to take her hand and that with what happens she needs to breathe no matter how much she wants to hold her breath. Laura nodded and they disappeared. Laura could feel her body twisting and turning. As though she were silly putty being played with by a three year old. They finally stopped and landed in a unknown shopping district. But before Laura could acknowledge it’s existence she was on the cobblestone ground coughing and wheezing. Trying to breathe. Although she had forced herself to breathe during whatever the hell that was, it still felt like she got dropped on her back and the wind had been knock from her lungs.

Mat picked her up and helped her to breathe again. She smiled when Laura was finally able to take in breaths of air and she laughed, saying, “You took that well, for your first apparition, most throw up.”

Laura smiled weakly and looked around her. It felt as though the air left her lungs again because she was in a whole other world. There were people walking up and down the streets in the weirdest clothing she had ever seen. Large pointed hats and oddly patterned cloaks covered their bodies’ and streets were speckled with odd looking shops and trolley carts, selling a variety of things she had no clue of what they were. Mat put a hand on her shoulder and lead her down the street. People were staring at her and pointing at her clothing. She looked down and Mat took her chin lightly in her hand and lifted up do they were looking at each other, “Don’t be embarrassed for who you are. It’ll come back and bite you in the butt.”

Laura smiled and nodded, lifting her head up and following Mat towards a large white marble building with intricate carvings on the front and people scurrying in and out of it hurriedly. It was probably one of the most beautiful buildings Laura had ever seen and the inside was even more gorgeous. Large chandeliers hung from the ceiling, seemingly completely made of crystal. They shimmered as candel and sunlight poured into them. The entire room was seemingly painted gold and covered in floating candles. It was extraordinary. Mat lead her to a desk and approached a large podium, with an extremely small creature sitting at the pedestal. Mat coughed said, “We are here to withdraw.”

The creature simply said, “Key.” And Mat looked down at me. Laura was confused for a second but then pulled off her backpack and rummaged through and and obtained a silver key with a ruby pressed into it. Laura handed it to her and she gave it to the small creature. The creature studied it and then looked down at them curiously, “Neither of you seem to be Katrina.”

Mat shook her head and gave him a warm smile, “No, Kat has passed, but this is her daughter, that means she has full rights to the account.” The creature, she assumed it was a godlin because the one book depicted a creature that looked exactly like it to be one, shook its head and held out its hand. “Then I need her wand as verification.”

Mat looked down at me once again and I dag through the bag once more and retrieved the wand box and handed up to her. She smiled warmly once again and handed to the goblin. He opened and examined the wand. Nodding satisfactually and saying, “How much?”

Mat thought for a second. “Let’s see, you need clothing, a wand, cauldron, phails, ingredients, books,” She kept listing things, but when she said books Laura shook her head and said, “I don’t need books. I have my mother’s.”

Mat looked down curiously but only smiled and noded. “Okay then, we’ll pull out enough for your things and then a little extra so you can get a few thing of your own that you want.” She looked up to the goblin and said, “How about seventy-five galleons?”

The goblin nodded and left us alone. Mat looked down and smiled, saying softly, “Danny is in town helping her younger brother shop for things. Its his first year too. Maybe we’ll meet up with them later?”

Laura’s eyes widened and she nodded happily as the goblin came back with a fairly large pouch of what seemed to be coins, “Here.” He said and handed her the pouch, wand, and key. “I also changed the name of the account, you won’t need the wand to open it anymore.”

“Thank you,” she said and she handed Laura the wand and key. As they walked out Laura put them into the knapsack and slug it around her shoulders. She then looked up to Mat for the next plan of action. May smiled and lead her back down the alley. “First we’ll get you some clothing, then we’ll get the cauldron and other miscellaneous things, then wand, then familiar, then fun stuff!”

Laura giggled and nodded. They spent some time in the clothing shop getting robes and cloaks for different seasons and occasions at Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions, Laura had no idea there were so many. As they shopped Mat explained many things to her about the world that she wouldn’t be able to find in the books. And then they went and got a ton of different ingredients for her cauldron and they started walking towards a shop on the corner with a fairly newly painted sign that said ‘Ollivander’s’. Laura was curious and she looked up to Mat for an explanation. Mat then complied. “Ollivander is the best wand smith in the world. Witches and Wizards come from all over to get a wand from him. Actually a few years ago the shop was destroyed and he was forced to rebuild. Many great wands were destroyed. But now it’s all fixed up and ready to go.”

Laura nodded as they walked in and she breathed in the atmosphere. For being rebuilt it seemed like the oldest shop on the block. It was dark, the only light coming from the windows, and there were tons of shelves that reached the ceiling with clumsily stacked boxes. They went up to the desk and and rang a bell in which they heard a lot of shuffling from the back. Mat looked down at me and said quietly, “Hey, I’m going to go find Danny and Sam, my son, stay here and get your wand, then if you like there is a candy store down the street you can go to and pick out some goods. Is that okay?”

Laura nodded nervously and took the now lighter bag of coins. Mat left and the shuffling came closer and a girl about Laura’s age poked her head over the counter. She had dark wavy hair and her eyes were black as night. Her skin was white and seemed as smooth as porcelain and it took her a second to absorb how pretty the girl was for being her age. 

The girl spoke up, looking Laura up and down, “Whatcha want?”

Laura nervously looked down and then looked back up, straightening her posture, she didn’t want to look weak in front of her, “I-I’m here to g-get a wand.”

The girl let out a loud sigh and said, “Yeah, obviously, creampuff.” She then turned towards the back of the store and yelled, “Ollivander, new blood looking for a wand!”

Laura felt heat rising to her cheeks at her sarcasm and it only deepened when she called her creampuff and new blood. Laura could hear rummaging in the back and a shout to the girl. “Help her as much as you can! If you cannot find a wand I’ll be out!”

The girl let out a large sigh and nodded, disappearing behind the counter and coming back a second later with a short box and a bored face on, “Try this, sweetie.”

Laura scowled at her and said, “I have a name. It’s Laura.” She carefully took the box and opened it to see a fairly dark wooden wand. She pulled it out and looked at the girl who groaned.  
“Well come on! Give it a swish!” she groaned out and Laura nodded. Swishing the wand and making a few boxes fall down. The girl groaned again and said, “Dammit, no, and now I’m gonna have to clean that up! Gimme a second.”

She pulled out what looked like her own wand and looked around carefully before swish and flicking it, which levitated the boxed and stacked them once again. She sighed and walked back to the shelves and grabbed a different box. Pulling it out and handing it to Laura, grabbing the other want and placing it back in the box. “That was ebony, I think, this is walnut, I’m decently sure, it should work out.”

Laura took out the wand and gave it another flick and a bolt of green light came out and broke a glass cup that was on one of the shelves. The girl gave a loud “ugh” and pulled out her wand once again and mumbled something under breath. The glass then shimmied back up the shelf and reattached itself. Make the cup whole once again. Laura’s eyes widened and the girl looked down at Laura and gave a small laugh, “Muggle-born?”

Laura shook her head and said quietly, “M-Mom pureblood, dad human. Muggle raised.” Mat had told her what those words words meant.

“Ah, okay, well lemme get the boss cause I can’t find you a wand. Gimme a second, Creampuff.” She smiled and walked away and Laura yelled her name at the girl who continued to not listen. She waited for a second and a very old looking man came to the counter with the girl beside him. He looked down at the small girl and smile warmly at her.

She smiled back up at him he looked her over. “Well, hello there! I’m Ollivander! And from what Carmilla here has told me you are having trouble finding a wand.”

Laura nodded and remembered her mother’s wand. “Will this help find me a wand?” She said and Ollivander raised an eyebrow at the girl as she pulled off her knapsack and pulled out the wand box handing it to the man. He took it graciously and retrieved the wand from it’s casing. He smiled as he looked over the wand approvingly and then frowned.

“W-What’s wrong?” She said nervously. Was something wrong with her mother’s wand? The girl he called Carmilla looked to her and then to wand curiously. 

Ollivander shook his head and then looked at Laura, “This was a wand of a friends daughter, Katrina. Ash, unicorn core, ten inches, rigid.” Laura flinched at her mother’s name, he knew her mother. Ollivander must have notice the uncomfortable use of her mother’s named and nodded. “She was your mother, yes? One of the best witches I have ever met. Loved everything from wands to potions. She apprenticed for me when she was about Carmilla’s age, before going off to Hogwarts. My guess is that you wouldn’t be showing me her wand with a dying core if she were alive, yes?”

Laura nodded weakly and Ollivander nodded. Carmilla looked at her with a mix of sympathy and pity. Ollivander nodded and looked to Carmilla, “Carmilla, go get me the yew, phoenix feather wand, the ten inched unbending, please?”

Carmilla’s eyes widened and she swallowed hard, “B-But phoenix feathers are only used with great wizards and witches!”

Ollivander shook his head and smiled at the girl, “I know, but as you know ever since the great war the phoenix has been willing to give a few more feathers than what it used to. I also think this girl has something special about her, I knew her mother and if she is anything like her then it will not be wasted.”

Carmilla groaned and nodded, running to the back of the shop to get the wand he requested. He then looked at Laura and smiled warmly, “Don’t mind her, she’s a grumpy cat sometimes. But she really is a great kid. I let her apprentice for me and may I say it was one of the best choices I have ever made.”

Laura giggled and nodded. He then leaned in and quietly whispered something in her ear, “This will be Carmilla’s first year at Hogwarts and I was perhaps wondering you could possibly befriend her. She is like a child I never had and I know she has a hard time playing well with others.”

Laura’s eyes widened and she thought for a second. The girl seemed rude and cold hearted, but from what Ollivander had said she may not be as bad as she thought. Laura never really had a friend before so she looked up to Ollivander and nodded happily. He smiled warmly and grabbed the small girls hand from of the counter and shook it happily.

“Oh, thank you! And in return.” He picked up her mother’s wand and looked at it happily, “I will fix Katrina’s wand. It isn’t much because Ash has a hard time changing owners and it does have a unicorn core which makes it even harder but you never know. Maybe it will bond to you or you can lay it rest with your mother.”

“Here!” They heard Carmilla yell and she dropped the box on the table. She looked at the scene that was in front of her between Ollivander and Laura and scoffed. Ollivander smiled at Carmilla and he grabbed the box and carefully lifted the wand out of the box and handed to Laura. She took it cautiously looked it over, curious. It had a pattern mixing between different runes and a floral pattern on it, it might have been the weirdest this she’d ever seen. It felt good in hand though, as though it were made for her. It fit perfectly almost, a little big, but she figured she would grow into it. She looked up at Ollivander from the wand and he gestured for her to give it a try. She nodded and a light came from the tip of the wand and she felt her whole body go weightless. She looked in amazement, her eyes traveled to the ground for her to notice that she was hovering a few feet above it. She looked to Ollivander who nodded approvingly and then to Carmilla who gaped slightly at the scene.

“Ah, yes, I love watch phoenix feather choose their owners, it’s always very special.” He laughed as he nudged Carmilla who closed her mouth and put her ‘I really don’t care’ face on. He smiled as he shook his head and started to push Carmilla around the counter and to Laura, “Now, Carmilla, you are going to show Laura around Diagon Alley. Maybe help her pick up a familiar. Get candy? I don’t know, but now run along.”

Carmilla looked up at him in sheer disbelief, but nodded, knowing she wasn’t allowed to say no. She sighed and jumped over the counter and grabbed Laura’s hand, “Fine, I’ll see you later, Ollivander. Come on, we’re going to Magical Menagerie, I gotta get cat treats anyways.”

Laura gulped and nodded, she blushed slightly when Carmilla grabbed her hand and before they left she ran to the counter and grabbed the wand box and left some galleons on the counter, Ollivander laughed and waved as they left. Carmilla pulled her down the street to the shop she had mentioned before. They entered and Laura smiled, realizing just then that it was a petshop. Her father never really let her have pets, he thought they were too much responsibility and that Laura wasn’t old enough for it. Well I guess she was now because she remembered the shopping list saying that she needed a familiar for school. As Carmilla walked towards the back Laura followed.

She looked at the different animals and saw a sign that said Puffskein and Pygmy Puffs, and another that said Toads. The one they were going towards though said Cats and Affiliations. Carmilla let go of her hand as they entered the cat part of the store and went straight towards a cage that had a small black lump sitting in it. She went to the cage poked her fingers in it to pet the cat and you could hear a loud purring emit from the small lump. The lump sat up and pushed its head into Carmilla’s fingers. It was a stunningly beautiful black cat with piercing golden yellow eyes. Carmilla smiled for the first time since they met and continued to pet the animal happily.

Laura raised an eyebrow and walked over to Carmilla, “Who is this?”

Carmilla looked to Laura and instead of saying something mean or malicious she softly said, “Bellamy. I’ve been trying to get my hands on him for the last few months, thats one of the reasons I got an apprenticeship at Ollivander’s.” Her eyes widened, as though surprised she shared the information with Laura.

Laura only smiled warmly at her, “Well surely if you’ve been working with him for the last few months then you have enough money to buy him.”

Carmilla scoffed a little as though she didn’t know anything, “Yeah I have enough for him and a few of the things that he needs but not all of it. I’m not allowed to buy him until I   
have enough to pay for everything he needs…”

She trailed off and Laura smiled a little, “How much do you need?”

Carmilla raised an eyebrow in surprise, “Um, I think like ten or eleven galleons. It isn’t a whole lot but I don’t make much working for Ollivander because technically I’m supposed to be apprenticing, which isn’t supposed to pay. I get paid off of tips.”

Laura nodded and pulled out her coin pouch. She grabbed about 10 galleons of her remaining 35 and pushed them into Carmilla’s hand, “Here.”

Carmilla’s eyes widened and she tried to push the money back into Laura’s hands and refused to take it, “N-No! I couldn’t take this! I should have enough by the time school starts and… and…”

Laura shook her head and stepped back from her, “No. I refuse to take back the money, if you try I’ll just throw it away. Go get your cat. I’m going to find a familiar for myself.”

Carmilla gaped at her for a few seconds then nodded and ran to the front of the shop. Laura smiled and blushed a little. It was different to see her not being rude, cute even. Laura looked around the shop and at all the different animals. But it felt as though something was watching her, following her even. She settled that she didn’t want a toad, too weird, plus she didn’t like slimey things. She looked at the the Nifflers but shook her head. She looked at the Puffskein and Pygmy but decided against it. The feeling of something watching became more evident and she felt a tap on her shoulder. She quickly turned to see Carmilla with a large bag of miscellaneous things and a cage with the cat in it.

“Hey, so, uh, thank you, creampuff,” She smiled weakly and looked around the store. Her eyes landing on something to her left and she smiled. “Looks like you have a admirer.”  
Laura followed her eyes and saw a weird looking cat staring at her. It was bigger than a normal cat and had a lot of hair covering it’s body, it had a tortoise type of fur, mostly black but have sprinkling of greys and oranges all over it’s body. Laura got down on the floor and gestured for it to come over. It compiled and it sat about a foot away from her. She held her hand out and she let it sniff her hand before cautiously coming closer to her and pushing it’s head into her hand. Laura smiles, looking at the creature lovingly and she looks up at Carmilla for what it is exactly. She only shrugs but a voice behind them laughs.

“Well isn’t this a first, he actually took a liking to someone.” Laura picks up the creature, who doesn’t protest and pets him as she looks at the woman behind her. “Sorry to startle you, I’m just surprised he actually letting someone pet him, let alone hold him. I’m one of the store owners, and my guess is you came in here to find a familiar?”

Laura gulped and nodded while Carmilla rolled her eyes and started to pay attention to Bellamy. The woman laughed and stuck a hand out to pet the creature but it growled and hissed. She withdrew her hand with a scoff and looked at Laura, “That little pest has been in the store for the past two years and no one has wanted him. He’s a Kneazle/cat hybrid, which is why no one wanted him. Kneazles pick their owners. Your the first one to come in that he’s liked.”

Laura looked at the odd creature in her arms that was purring as she pet him and couldn’t even think of him being mean. The woman laughed and looked at Laura happily. “If you would like him you can take him, no charge, but would need to buy his supplies. He’s been here for so long that I’m okay with giving him up. As long as you’ll take care of him.”  
Laura looked at the kneazle and it looked back up at her. She smiled and nodded and the creature licked her hand in response. They all went up to the front desk and Laura gave her the money for the supplies and such and before Carmilla and her left the witch yelled one last thing at them, “You know, Hermione Granger had a kneazle/cat hybrid. She was one of the best witches of her time. Just remember that.”

Laura smiled and nodded and Carmilla let out a groan of frustration. The left the shop, animals in cages and supplies in bags. As they exited the store next to them, Eeylops Owl Emporium, had three people exit it. One she recognized as Matilda, but the other two she had no clue. One, a girl who was very tall, looked just like Mat, which she figured was Danny because Mat had said before that she was going to find Danny and her son Sam. Laura waved happily to Mat and gestured for her to come over. Carmilla groaned once again and moved behind Laura so she was partially hidden.

Mat smiled and walked over to Laura and Carmilla, “Hello! I found Danny and Sam, we were just about to come and find you!” She looked at the stuff in Laura’s arms and looked at Carmilla and then to the kneazle. “Well it looks like you already made a few friends. But this kind of awkward because…”

Mat lifted up a cage that exposed a large and odd looking owl. It looked a little derpy to be honest and it seemed out of place. “I got you a messenger owl.”

Laura’s eyes widened and she looked up at Mat, “Y-You didn’t need to do that! I mean it is a great gift but you didn’t need to get me a owl!” Mat laughed and shook her head.   
Laura could feel Carmilla’s hand grab the back of her sweater and looked back at Carmilla and nodded. “O-Oh and this is Carmilla! I met her at Ollivanders. Carmilla this is Matilda. She was a friend of my mother’s and the person who brought me here today.”

Carmilla nodded wearily, as though she recognized her and Mat laughed again. “Yes I know Carmilla. All pureblood families know each. And Laura it really was no trouble. We were in the shop anyways because we were getting Sam a owl of his own. You’ll need a owl anyways if you want to talk to your dad during the school year.”  
Laura nodded and Carmilla whispered in her ear. “I should get going. I have work. Uh, thanks again for helping me with Bellamy. I’ll pay you back, I promise.” Laura turned towards Carmilla before she left though and grabbed a pen out of her knapsack and wrote her address down on Carmilla’s hand, telling her to message her. Carmilla nodded and left and Laura turned towards Mat again.

“Well that was interesting. Anyways, Laura this is Danny and Sam.” Sam waved quietly and Danny smiled and said hi. Laura returned the words and looked up to Mat. “Oh here! I got you a cart so it won’t be as bothersome to carry your stuff.”

Mat pulled the cart that was next to her and started to load the stuff onto it. Laura tried to help as much as she could but didn’t know how the thing worked. Mat laughed and got everything on. The kneazle and owl on top of it, watching them. Laura bowed in thanks and started to push the cart as they walked down the alley. Danny walked next to her and started to make conversation.

“So what are you going to name them?” She asked as they followed Sam and Mat who was leading them.  
Laura looked up at her confused for a second, confused, but then realized she was talking about the animals and she shrugged, unsure. “I don’t know. Maybe the owl after one of my favorite authors, J.R.R Tolkien… I actually like that, Tolkien, yeah.”

Danny laughed and looked down at the girl who put a hand to the cage and pet the odd looking owl. “It’s a Great Grey. They aren’t very common in this part of the world.”  
Laura looked up at the girl and nodded, smiling slightly. Danny was very beautiful, she looked like a teenage version of her mother. “So, hey, that girl, Carmilla, you would do best to stay away from her.”

Laura raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side, confused. Danny sighed and shook her head, “Right, forgot, you were raised in the muggle world. Well, uh, you see her family is known for creating Dark Wizards. Now I have nothing against Slytherin… most of the time, but Carmilla’s family, the Karnsteins, and her step family are known for producing a large amount of evil witches and wizards.”

Laura looked down at the cobblestone street. Trying to absorb what Danny had just said. She vaguely knew what Slytherin was, a house or something like that at hogwarts. There were four. But evil? Carmilla wasn’t evil. Yeah at first she seemed a little rude and mean, but she seemed like she could be really nice actually. Laura shook her head and looked up at Danny, “No, just because someones family is bad doesn’t mean that they are bad.”

Danny looked a little taken aback by her words, but after a small while she shrugged and looked forward. Laura looked at the cat and thought for a second before saying quietly, “Azazel.”

Danny laughed a little at the name and we followed her mother to a pub with the sign ‘The Leaky Cauldron’ on the front. They walked in and Mat lead them to a table in the corner. They sat down and started to exchanged conversation as a nice woman came and took their order. They exchanged different stories, most about Danny’s adventures at Hogwarts. But as their food came Mat turned to Laura and ask, “So what kind of wand did you get?”

Laura blushed lightly as Danny and Sam stared at her. Laura dug in her knapsack and pulled out her wand box. Carefully opening it to reveal the small ten inch wand. They stared at it as she tried to remember what Ollivander had said about her wand. “It’s, uh, yew wood, unbending, ten inches, and, um, has a phoenix feather core.”  
They all went a little wide eyed and looked up to Laura. Sam looked at his mother and whispered something that Laura could barely make out, “Isn’t yew and phoenix feather what you-know-who had in his wand?”

Laura was about to ask what a you-know-who was but Mat smacked him upside the head so she decided against it. Danny looked a little worried but then smiled and put an arm around Laura, “Hey, phoenix feathers are pretty rare. I have one in mine, its made of walnut and is thirteen inches, rigid too. I think another kid in Gryffindor has one, and thats it. Hey maybe this means you’ll get into Gryffindor, like a sign or something!”

Laura laughed and nodded. The conversation was dropped, though, soon after and they ate their food. After a small while Mat said she was going to take Laura home and that Danny and Sam should get home too. We all parted ways and Mat walked Laura to the back of the pub. She explained that pub was the entrance to the muggle world. They apparated once again and they were on the front step of Laura’s house. Tolkien was coughing up something nasty from the unwarranted apparition and Azazel was hissing at Mat.  
Mat hugged her and apparated away. The door swung open and her dad grabbed her tightly, bringing her in for a bear hug and lifting her off her feet. Once he put her down he looked at her stuff and his eyes widened as he saw the animals. She explained to him what they were for and although he didn’t like, he did accept it. The night went on. Laura let Azazel out to roam the house, in which he did not like her father. She also let out Tolkien to roam the neighborhood and catch some food for the night.

Laura fell asleep peacefully for once and thought about her new life and how this was all real. She also couldn’t wait until Carmilla sent her a messenger owl.


	2. Houses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura and Carmilla have a interesting first encounter with Hogwarts and their new lives as students there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, second chapter. The only reason this one came out so quick is because I already had half of it written when I posted the first chapter. The chapter's aren't really going to have a schedule. When I get one done I'll post it. Uh yeah.

Carmilla sighed as she looked at her hand. The letters and numbers were still perfectly intact even though they were written there two days ago. She was laying in her bed at Ollivander’s and she was still debating on sending a message to the overly kind girl who wanted to be friends.

Bellamy was sleeping at her feet and she groaned loudly. Ollivander was out for the night, getting a new type of wood or something, and she was there alone. At least she wasn’t home. Merlin, she was happy to be anywhere but home. She sat up suddenly and sighed, making Bellamy look up at her annoyed that he couldn’t sleep in peace. She ignored him as she slowly got up and walked over to her desk. Pulling out a quill and some ink she stopped herself from writing on the blank parchment, trying to think of what to say. She was like that for a few minutes and she groaned again.

She sighed and started to write. After a few minutes she folded the letter and walked downstairs to find Grimson, Ollivander’s owl. She found him sleeping in his nest on the third shelf of maple wands and she flicked him awake. He gave what was most likely a scowl and looked at the letter in her hand. He hooted and was about to go back to sleep before she flicked him again, “Take this to my friend and I’ll trade you two mice.”

This time he got up and grabbed the letter in one of his talons. He then took off towards the open window and was off to his next destination.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Laura awoke to a tapping at her window and a annoyed Azazel nudging her awake to stop the tapping. For an animal he was quite smart. “Okay, okay gimme a second.”

Azazel watched Laura get up and out bed. She looked at her window and saw a extremely old looking owl there tapping it’s beak against the glass. She walked over and opened it for a warm summer gust of air to enter her room and a the owl to step in. The owl dropped a rolled up piece of parchment onto the sill and waited for her to open it. 

 

Hey,

What’s up, Creampuff?

~Carmilla

P.S The owl is Grimson and if you could please give him a treat before setting him off that’ll be much appreciated.

 

That’s how it began. Over the summer the two exchanged multiple letters and things, but since Laura wasn’t allowed to go to Diagon Alley alone they didn’t see each other. But their friendship grew. Laura was happy to finally have a friend and Carmilla, even though she didn’t seem like it, was just as happy. From what Laura gathered about Carmilla, Carmilla, even though born a pureblood, was raised in the muggle world, and only just found out about the wizarding world when her and her father were forced to go back. That was all she was able to find out about her past though because Carmilla was not very adamant about sharing the past. Laura wasn’t really open about it either, or at least specifics.

But the summer came and went too fast because it was time to set off to Hogwarts. Laura and Carmilla agreed to meet at Platform 9 ¾ wherever that was. Laura’s father was extremely worried about her, and on the car ride there he kept talking about not talking to strangers and to do as she was told. Since he wasn’t allowed to go onto the platform he dropped her off at King’s Cross and gave her a large hug.

She was able to get her stuff arranged on the cart just fine, with Azazel sleeping in his cage on top and Tolkien beside him. She walked down the platforms extremely lost. She found platform 9 but couldn’t find 9 ¾. She was starting to lose hope when she felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned around to find Carmilla.

Laura was so overcome with happiness she didn’t stop herself from jumping and hugging Carmilla very tightly. Carmilla laughed and lightly hugged back. “Ha, nice to see you too, cupcake.” When Laura pulled away Carmilla looked up at the large clock that was hanging from the ceiling and cursed. “Shit, we’re gonna be late. Okay, this is gonna sound really confusing but bare with me. You’re gonna run at the wall. I know sounds stupid. But trust me, take your cart and run at the wall.”

Laura gulped, it did sound stupid. But she trusted Carmilla. So she nodded and grabbed her cart. Positioning herself so the she was headed towards the pillar, she ran and closed her eyes. After a few seconds of noticing she had not run into a wall yet she opened her eyes to scene in front of her.

There were people everywhere of all shapes and sizes and in different cloaks of colors and designs. There were more people on the platform than there were in diagon alley. Many more. There was what looked to be hundreds of parents and kids running around, hugging each other and getting on the train. Suddenly, Carmilla appeared next to her and told her to follow her. Laura complied and followed her until they reached a luggage cart and they dropped their stuff off, Laura and Carmilla kept a hold of their cats. Not wanting to leave them alone. Laura dropped Tolkien at the Owlery carriage and they both got onto the train.

The train was an old steam engine but was painted brand new. The interior looked new too, for being old. They found a empty room and decided to use that one. Even though there were two benches Laura and Carmilla sat together. They closed the door and let their animals out. Carmilla put her back to the wall and propped her feet up on the bench, allowing for Bellamy to sit on her lap. Laura copied the position and although Azazel was much larger than Bellamy he still climbed up on Laura lap and fell asleep. And they sat like that for a while, it was nice, the train started to move and they were left unbothered for a small while.

They didn’t talk at first, it felt a little awkward. Even though they sent countless letters back and forth they didn’t speak face to face once. So they just sat there, looking at each other. Carmilla was trying to look cool and brody, even though she was a first year. While Laura just sat their happy she finally had a friend.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and they both turned to see two girls there. One had short orange hair, the sides of it were shaved but the top was longer, long enough to give her swishing bangs. She was wearing black Hogwarts robes with a blue striped tie hanging from her shoulders. She was also wear male cloaks. The other had long extremely curly hair, she had tight posture and seemed to be worried about something. She was wearing her robes with a yellow and black tie tightly done around her neck. They looked around and their eyes landed on the both of them.

“Hey is this side taken?” Said the short haired one. She pointed to the empty seat and although Laura shook her head Carmilla replied with a yes. The short haired one laughed and took a seat near the window, the other one sat near the door. Laura watched them curiously and Carmilla groaned, petting Bellamy roughly as a sign of frustration she didn’t want to deal with the new company. The one who had talked before raised an eyebrow at Carmilla and turned to Laura, smiling, “Hi, I’m LaFontaine, this is Lola.”

“Just call me Perry, everyone does,” said the curly haired one.

Laura nodded and smiled warmly at them, “I’m Laura, this is Carmilla.” Azazel let out a meow and Laura then gestured to him, “And this is Azazel, and thats Bellamy.”

LaFontaine laughed and Perry shook her head. Carmilla only closed her eyes and pretended to not hear them. LaFontaine only gave another laugh and looked at Laura, “Lemme guess, new blood?” Laura nodded, petting Azazel’s head lightly. “Yeah, figured, neither of you have your uniforms on and I’ve never seen either of you before. Me and Perry-”

“Perry and I.” Perry corrected and Lafontaine rolled her eyes at Perry.

“-are second years. If you need any help with charms or potions or something feel free to find and ask us.” LaFontaine smiled again and looked down at Azazel. Her eyes widened and she put her hand out to pet him. “Oh my Merlin. Is that a Kneazle/cat hybrid? How did you get one of those?”

“No! I wouldn’t-” It was too late to warn her. Azazel already had a claw out and scratched her hand. LaFontaine was now clutching her now hurt hand looking at Azazel in wonder. “Azazel! You don’t scratch people who are trying to be nice! I am so sorry about that! He doesn’t really like people…”

Carmilla was snickering quietly at the scene and Laura turned to scowl at her. She immediately shut up and Laura turned back to LaFontaine who already had her wand out. “No problem. I forgot Kneazles don’t really like people who aren’t their owners, neither do cats really.”

She whispered something under her breath and pointed her wand at the cut. The skin resealed itself and it looked as good as new. Laura’s mouth was agape and she knew she looked like a idiot. LaF looked up at Laura and snickered. “Lemme guess, muggle raised?”

Laura nodded. Perry was watching them quietly. It kind of freaked Laura out a bit but then Perry spoke up, “You two might want to change into your robes, we are going to be there in a hour or so.”

Laura nodded and Carmilla groaned. Laura was practically pulling Carmilla out of the carriage to go and change. And a reluctant Carmilla followed.

~~~~~~~~~~

“How much you wanna bet they gonna get together at some point over the years?” LaFontaine said the second the two girls were out of earshot. Perry’s eyes widened and her face contorted in a partial look of disgust yet curiosity.

“Su-LaFontaine they’re eleven.” Perry corrected herself and Laf only smirked. Turning around and laying on the bench. Their head in Perry’s lap. Perry only sighed and started to stroke their hair and Laf closed their eyes and smiled.

“Oh come on, you and I both know I have the best radar when it comes to potential relationships. I saw us, and we’re twelve.” Laf laughed and Perry’s face began to turn a deep shade of red.

“Y-Yeah but we’ve liked each other since we were five. You just met those girls.” Perry said quietly. Laf only shrugged. They sat like that for a while. Perry looking down at Laf while they drifted in and out of sleep. They loved it when Perry played with their hair, it was peaceful.

They were awoken by the sound of a door sliding and she opened her eyes to see the girls walk in with their robes on and they were eating something. Laf’s eyes focused to see they were eating Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans and gummy rats. Laura, the girl who seemed like they would get along well with, handed them a gummy rat and some beans and Laf graciously took them. Laura offered some to Perry too but she refused, “After the sorting hat gets through the first years and Headmistress Mcgonagall gets through her speech there’s a large feast. I don’t want to spoil my appetite.”

Laura shrugged and sat down next to Carmilla who was eating a chocolate frog. Laf watched as Laura leaned against Carmilla and began to shut her eyes. After a small while they shifted into the same position Laf and Perry were in. Laura’s head in Carmilla’s lap. Laf waited and watched as their breathing evened out to look up at Perry and whisper, “So gonna date. Give it time.”

Perry shook her head. They still had at least an hour so they both got comfortable and laced a few fingers through Perry’s free hand. They slowly snoozed off, curious as to where these newbies where going to lead them.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

Carmilla was woken up by shaking and loud talking. She moved her hand to her lap and noticed that it was cold and barren. She slowly opened her eyes to see Laura standing in front of her, shaking her shoulder. “Come on, Carm, we’re here.”

Carmilla looked around the room and saw ginger one putting Bellamy in his cage and ginger two telling her to hurry up. She finished and told Laura that they would see her later. Laura gave them a nod and started pulling Carmilla up. Carmilla groaned and shook her off. Slowly getting up and picking up Bellamy’s cage. “The Ravenclaw didn’t hurt you, did she?

The cat gave a mew in response and Carmilla sighed. She looked to Laura and she shrugged. Carmilla watched Laura grab the cage with Azazel in it and she pulled her off the train. Upperclassmen were yelling about not worrying about bags because have would be taken care of or something. Also something about first years finding a man named Hagrid. They eventually found him and he told them to leave their familiars here with nametags. He was a giant of a man, she knew him briefly from her stepmother’s work parties but that was really it. His had a long scruffy beard and although he looked forceful and mean Carmilla knew enough to know he was actually quite nice. Laura nodded but Carmilla was reluctant to leave Bellamy with them. After some convincing from Laura, though, she temporarily gave up custody of Bellamy to a upperclassman and she followed the other first years.

Carmilla kept a tight hold on Laura’s hand. Even though she tried to be cool and calm in reality she was scared of this place. She was scared she would see her mother. But she wiped all that from her mind and focused on Laura, who was leading her from the back of the small pack of first years into the school. She had been to school before, so it wasn’t as fascinating as Laura must have thought it was. But the look on Laura’s made Carmilla smile a little. It made her happy that Laura was so happy.

They walked into the Great Hall. All of the upperclassmen were already sitting at their designated houses. The Slytherin table was at one end of the hall with green and silver banners over their heads. While Ravenclaws were next to them in the middle of the hall with blue and bronze banners hanging. The Gryffindors were chatting loudly and their red and gold banners seemed to be sloppily put up. And Hufflepuff were at the other end of the hall with their yellow and black banners swaying in the wind. She looked at the people sitting at the faculty table. She vaguely knew most of them. She spotted Professor Slughorn and a few nice thoughts came to her mind, he was a little scatter brained but was one of the few professors she actually had a chance to sit down and talk to, he was one of the few people who treated her like a person. The other’s were Ollivander, Laura, and I guess you could count her stepbrother Will.

Her eyes drifted from Slughorn to a extremely stiff strict looking woman sitting next to him. Her light brown hair was pulled into a tight bun and her glasses hung low on her nose as she peered over them to observe the new batch of first-years. She was someone Carmilla wanted to avoid at all costs but sadly she knew she couldn’t avoid her for long. Their eyes met, and for a brief second the woman scowled, but then her face relaxed into a sly and devilish grin. Carmilla squeezed Laura’s hand tightly and tried to look away but she was frozen.

Their gaze lasted until the first years were finished being lead to the front of the hall and stopped just in front of a podium. A woman who she recognized as headmistress McGonagall started talk. Something about the founders and the great war and something or another. Carmilla wasn’t paying attention. She was only looking at Laura who seemed to be paying attention very carefully. Suddenly a name was called and Carmilla looked to see a girl walk up to a stool and sit down. A hat was placed on her head and after a few minutes of contemplation the hat screamed “Hufflepuff!” and the girl ran to her new house.

It was like that for a while. There weren’t many first years this year but after about half of the students were called she noticed herself and Laura were still holding hands. Sadly though she heard her name being called and she looked at Laura. Laura gave her a large hug and told her she was going to be fine but not likely.

Carmilla walked cautiously to the front and sat down on the stool. As the hat was placed on her head, it started to mumble and she could feel him pry through her head. “Mmmm, yes, sly and cunning, very Slytherin, but you have a great mind. Filled with many knowledges and different things. Oh yes this is ponder-some.”

Carmilla closed her eyes tightly and started think about not wanting to be in Slytherin. Carmilla knew he would ask why. “Oh, why not Slytherin? Your stepmother is the head witch and brother is doing quite well, to my knowledge. It would be a good fit.” Carmilla ignored everything it had just said and only thought about any other house besides Slytherin. The hat let out a large sigh, “Fine have it your way… RAVENCLAW!”

Carmilla let out a sigh of relief and hopped down and walked over to the table with blue and bronze banners waving above her head. Something suddenly occurred to her though, what house will Laura get into? It was kind of hard to hang out with people in other houses. At least she thought it was.

After a few more children Carmilla heard Laura’s name and her heart skipped a beat. Please be in Ravenclaw, please be in Ravenclaw. As the hat was set on Laura’s head she was close enough to hear what it was saying, but only barely.

“Hmm, kind, very kind, but also smart. You have the courage of a thousand men and the wit of hundred scholars. This is hard. Very hard.” Laura looked around and her eyes landed on Carmilla. Carmilla noticed Laura lift her hand a little and cross her fingers and Carmilla did the same. She didn’t know what house Laura wanted to be in but she was worried. After a few more seconds the hat shouted her house and Carmilla’s heart sunk. “Gryffindor!”

Carmilla watched Laura hop down and run to a free seat at the Gryffindor table. She watched her talk to the other first years and she let out a gust of breath. Laura turned a little to lock eyes with Carmilla, she gestured to her. Carmilla didn’t really know what she was trying to say but she figured it had something to do with making new friends. She sighed and nodded to her, turning around to look at the kids at her table.

To her they all looked like imbecilic toddlers who haven’t stop picking their noses. None of them seemed interesting or like they could hold an intelligent conversation for more than two minutes. This was Ravenclaw right? The house with all of the smart kids? Then why did they all look like idiots? She felt a tap on her shoulder and she looked up to she one of the kids that crashed her and Laura’s cart on the train. LaFonlaine? LaFontaine? She couldn’t remember or care less.

“Hey, new blood, hows it feel to be a part of Ravenclaw?” LaFontaine asked. Carmilla shrugged and looked at the first years, there weren’t many for Ravenclaw. Most of them went to Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. There were ten at most. She looked to see Gingy had taken a seat next to her and she groaned, slumping down and laying her head against the table. She heard Gingy laugh and nudge her. “Hey, don’t worry, I know you’re not in the same house as your girlfriend but Ravenclaws have a decent amount of classes with Gryffindor. Plus you’ll see each other on free periods and after classes, its not that hard. Me and Perry do it all the time.”

“S-She’s not my girlfriend…” Carmilla said into the table, she hid her face for a little bit because her cheeks felt hot and she didn’t want Gingy to think she was blushing. After a bit of time, though, Carmilla looked up at Gingy, and even though her face continued to be bored and uncaring, her eyes were lit up a little now she knew she would actually see Laura. She watched Gingy laugh and shake her head when something occurred to Carmilla, Ginger One and Ginger Two were obviously dating. That wasn’t what she was curious about, though. “So, uh, why are you wearing the boy’s uniform?”

Gingy’s eyes widened a little, as though she doesn’t get asked that question a lot. Her cheeks cheeks turned a light pink and her ears seemed to go a little red too. “Oh, I, uh, don’t really recognize as either gender… Genderqueer is what it’s called…” Sh-They seemed a little nervous to tell Carmilla. Carmilla knew what it was. When she still lived in the muggle world she had a kid in one of her classes recognize as it. Something about neither gender and not going by typical pronouns. See, Carmilla couldn’t care less what you recognized as. If you’re happy then you’re happy.

“Kay, whatever,” she said, trying to seem cool and unopinionated. Carmilla looked at the food that was now appearing in front of them, but watched Gingy in her peripheral vision. At first they were confused but then seemed to realise that was Carmilla’s way of being nice and they nodded, also starting for focus on the food.

~~~~~~~~~~

Laura quietly watched Carmilla interact with LaFontaine and eat. Laura hoped Laf would become friends with them for they seemed really cool. So did the other girl Perry, but she seemed a little uptight. Laura looked around the table to see the the chatty Gryffindors eating and talking with one another. She was little sad she couldn’t eat with Carmilla, enough so that she kind of wished the sorting hat put her in Ravenclaw. But it was too late to go back now! Laura was sitting in between the second years and the rest of the first years. After trying multiple times to join conversations that she knew nothing about she gave up and picked at her food.

She felt long arms wrap around her and a chin on the top of her head. She looked up to see beautiful flaming red hair and a smirking face. “I told you so.”

Laura raised an eyebrow confused and Danny just shook her head and told the second year next to her to scoot. She sat down next to her and smiled largely waiting for Laura to understand what she just said but it went over her head. Danny let out a sigh and shook her head while smirking, “I told you, phoenix feathers are the sign of a Gryffindor.”

Laura then remembered their conversation at The Leaky Cauldron a few months ago and smiled. As dinner went on they continued to talk. People were looking at them confusingly and girls listened carefully. “Hey, uh, why are people listening to us?”

Danny let out a laugh and put an arm around Laura, she leaned in and Laura had a slight blush on her cheeks. “I’m a part of a club called the Summer Society. Not many get accepted in. So when someone is, well, it gets around.”

Laura nodded and Danny didn’t let go. Laura was a little confused by the closeness but was happy she knew someone in the house rather than being all alone again. They talked about their summers and what they did, Laura refained from mentioning how much her and Carmilla talked since Danny seemed to not like her. Danny was telling her about how much fun she had practicing quidditch when a boy sat down in front of them on the other side of the table. He was also a Gryffindor and looked about the same age as Danny.

Laura looked up at Danny for an explanation and Danny looks to the boy and grunts in response, “What do you want, Kirsch?”

“Well, I just thought I would come by and congratulate you on your being accepted into the Summer Society. See, I got accepted in Zeta Omega Mu and I just thought it was something we both could be proud of, now…” The boy Danny called Kirsch looked Laura over and smiled. Not in a mean or creepy way, but in a puppy, happy sorta way, “Who is your friend?”

Danny groaned and looked at Laura, sighing, “Kirsch, this is Laura. Laura, this is Kirsch.” Laura smiled wryly at the large puppy dog looking boy and Kirsch got up and bowed. Danny scowled at him, clearly angry. “Oh, don’t even start with that foe chivalrous crap, Kirsch. You know that whole thing that Zeta Omega Mu stands for is fake and flawed.”

Kirsch stands up suddenly and leans forward trying to get as close to Danny’s face as possible, “Hey, all I did was bow! Don’t talk smack about my bros! At least I’m not in the Psycho Society!”

Danny then stood up, forcing Laura to scoot away a few inches. Danny leaned over the table and got into Kirsch’s face. “What does ‘talk smack’ even mean? I was just stating that the Zetas are all misogynist pigs who pretend to be for witches’ rights just so they can get in their pants! And what did you just call my sisters?”

“You heard me, Summer Psycho!” Kirsh yelled and students were staring at them. Danny was about to punch him and Kirsch was about to fight back. Before anything could happen, though, Laura stood up and pushed her small body in between the two giants.

“Stop it! You!” Laura pointed to Kirsch, “You should go, be with your Zeta bros or whatever. Be the bigger person! And you!” Laura turned to Danny, Laura was only 4’7 and Danny was easily a foot taller than her, “You need to calm down. Come on, lets drink some pumpkin juice or something.”  
Danny looked down at Laura and nodded. Laura looked over to Kirsch and waited for a response. She started to stare daggers at the larger boy, trying to tell him that even if he is larger than him she will still kick his butt. Kirsch then looked down and scratched the back of his head, “Yeah, uh, I’m gonna go sit with the boys. Uh, newb-- Laura, super cool of you to do that. If you need help the bros got your back.”

He then walked off and Laura sat down, not looking at Danny. Danny let out a loud breath. Well this was a interesting first night, Laura thought. She hoped that every night with Gryffindor wasn’t going to be like this. Danny sat down next to her and lightly nudged her elbow. “Hey, sorry about that. Kirsch just loves to get on my nerves and you should have never been caught up in that. That was really awesome though. Like, Summer Society, worthy. We don’t really accept anyone under third years but just about everyone in the hall saw that and, well, I’m sure the upperclassmen would be cool with you-”

“I’m really sorry, Danny, but no thank you,” Laura said as she looked at her hands, unsure of what to do. “I mean, that’s awesome that you want me in the Summer Society, but I’m still trying to adjust to being a witch in the first place.”

Laura looked up at Danny. Danny nodded and smiled a little at her, “That’s cool, you know, you’re really cool, Laura, and if you like we should hang out a little more.”

Laura smiled and nodded. “Yeah, that would be nice, now if you excuse me. I would like to go see how one of my friends are doing.” Laura got up and walked away from Danny. The word still tingled on her lips. Friends, she had friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, follow i-hate-me-but-i-love-you for chapter updates and other things involving the story.


	3. Sleeping Arrangements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura has to sleep in the Ravenclaw dorm for a night or two?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is really short compared to the other ones... sorry. But uh yeah.

Carmilla was picking at her food, not really feeling hungry enough to actually eat. Gingy was sitting next to her eating happily and reading a book. Suddenly she felt hands cover her eyes and things go dark. A high, soft voice blew a small huff of air into her ear as the words drifted into her mind, “Guess who?”

Carmilla gave a small smirk and looked over to see a wave of dirty blonde hair and her favorite face. She scooted away from Gingy to give Laura a place to sit, and although it was a tight squeeze, she fit. They started to talk, well, correction, Laura started to talk about her conversation with that Danny girl and how she was able to stop a fight while Carmilla listened. They were like that for a few minutes before a teacher came up behind Laura and tapped on her shoulder.

Carmilla recognized him as Professor Longbottom, she thought he taught Herbology, but she wasn’t for sure. The only thing she knew about him is that he was head of the Gryffindor house. She watched Laura turn to face him and she listened carefully to their conversation.

“Hello, uh, Laura Hollis correct?” He asked somewhat nervously. Laura’s face contorted in worry and she nodded. “Um, it took a bit to find you, I’m not going to ask why you’re not sitting with your house though. Anyways, there seems to be a problem with boarding. We didn’t account for how many Gryffindor there were going to be this year so we are short a bed. Would you, uh, mind possibly staying with another house for a few days, until we can get another bed into the dorm?”

Laura shook her head and Professor Longbottom then proceeded to look around and try to determine which house Laura should stay in. That when it hit Carmilla. So she threw on a smile and put on her happy voice, hoping to convince him of her idea. “Why doesn’t she stay with the Ravenclaws, Professor? They seem to have very few kids this year so there must be a free bed.”

Longbottom looked at Carmilla for a second confused as to what she was asking but it hit him a moment later and he nodded, “Right, yes, I’ll, uh, bring it up with the Ravenclaw head. But for now please enjoy your meal.”

Laura nodded and watched him walk away while Carmilla wiped the smile from her face, although she was freaking out internally. She heard LaFontaine laughing, Laura and she turn to look at them. Gingy wiped a tear from their eye and said, "Sure, not your girlfriend."

Carmilla scowled at them and Laura laughed a little, "Yeah she's my girlfriend, she a girl, who is my friend, my best friend actually."

Carmilla’s eyes widen at the comment of being her best friend. Can they really be best friends? Yeah, sure, they sent a ton of messages back and forth throughout the summer but they never hung out, or really got to know too much about each other, or well, she got to know things about Laura. Carmilla didn’t like talking about herself and even though she knew trivial things about Laura, she still knew nothing about her past or anything. Carmilla had been dazing out when she felt something grab her hand and squeeze, bringing her back to reality.

She looked down to see Laura’s hand holding onto her’s, she must have realized that Carmilla was doubting her statement. She lifted her eyes to meet Laura’s and Laura smiled warmly, “You’re my best friend, Carmilla. Don’t ever forget that.”

Carmilla gulped and nodded. She looked at LaFontaine, who looked like they were about to melt for a cuteness overload and scowled, and she pulled her hand away from Laura’s, “Okay, enough with the cute shit. When do we go to our common rooms?”

Laura giggled and LaFontaine was taken aback by her suddenly breaking the moment. Gingy let out a breath of air and shook their head. “When dinner is over, I’m not sure if Laura will be coming with us or heading to the Gryffindor house first, though, so I suggest that you find Professor Longbottom and talk to him, Laur.”

Laura nodded and got up, most likely to find him. When she was out of earshot Gingy immediately looked at Carmilla and smiled like an idiot. “What is it, Gingy?”

LaF shook her head and smiled, “Oh, nothing…”

Carmilla scowled at her and watched Laura talk to the Professor. She internally smiled and watched the small girl interact with the teacher. Maybe this wasn’t going to be that bad of a place after all, as long as she’s here.

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, so, uh, we don’t normally do this, actually we never do this. Normally there is an even amount of kids in each house, but as of late a lot of children have been put into Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Sorry if this seems unfair. It’s just since the hat had such a hard time placing you we thought that maybe you would be okay with this.” Professor Longbottom rambled as he personally walked Laura to the Ravenclaw common room. She had already went and had the tour of the Gryffindor commons with the other first years. They all seemed nice but none seemed to care for Laura. Kirsch and Danny, after finding out, both offered their beds to Laura and said that they would sleep on a couch in the common room but Laura graciously declined.

They were walking up some very narrow and confiding staircases up a tower. The Professor continued to ramble and Laura wasn’t particularly listening to him. But he mentioned the Headmistress’ name and she looked up, her ears now open to what he had to say. “You know, Headmistress McGonagall was in the same boat you are. Not the house sleeping situation, but the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor situation, yes, she told me the story about this at dinner. She was apparently right in the middle of the line and the Sorting Hat just kind of based in on his gut, even though he doesn’t have one.”  
Laura nodded and listened intently to what he was saying, curious as to what the Headmistress had to say to him, “She also told me that she knew your mother, very smart, extremely so. I met your mother a few times, Katrina Dragron, correct? She was head of Gryffindor when I had just entered Hogwarts. She was very nice. She was one of the few upperclassmen that were nice to me. I saw her a few times after she graduated, she was still very kind to me.”

Laura felt a twinge in her heart as he talked about her. She still missed her mother even though she died when she was young. It was nice that people knew her, back in the muggle world it was as though no one knew her, here she seemed to be a legend. As Laura listened to him, though, she heard his voice drop, as though greatly pained. She looked up to see the Professor dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief. A little taken aback by Professor’s sadness towards her mother she had to hold back a tear herself. She hadn’t cried about her mother in a long time, she didn’t plan on crying about her now.

“Ah, anyways, McGonagall also said you seemed to the only one clever enough to solve the riddle into Ravenclaw. I could never get in, my friend Hermione did when we were younger, I think.” There was that name again, Hermione, who was it? Laura shook her head as they came came to the door and a bronze eagle-shaped door knocker looked at her and the Professor.

“Neville! Come to try and solve a riddle to get in like when you were a student? Wanting to see, ah, what was her name? Huggood? Lovehood?” Professor placed a hand over the eagle’s mouth and laughed nervously.

“N-No, Trelawney should have told you about the boarding situation.” Professor stared at the eagle, urging him to shut up. He pulled back his hand with a snap, as though the eagle bit him, and her scowled nervously at the knocker.

“Yes, come in child, Trelawney was telling me about you.” Laura blinked at him, confused, but when she heard the door unlocking she held her hands out as though to stop him.

“W-Wait, don’t I need to solve a riddle or something? And who is Trelawney?” Laura asked. She was so confused at the moment and it showed on her face.

The knocker laughed at her question and shook it’s head, “You’re a Gryffindor, I’ve only met three out of the many that were able to solve my riddles. Anyways, Trelawney is the head of Ravenclaw and the Divination teacher, a Seer. She saw you coming, quite literally.”

Laura nodded but insisted on answering the riddle. The knocker sighed and nodded, before he could ask it, though, the Professor was saying something in her ear. “Uh, have fun, I guess? I know you have friends in there so you should be fine. Your things are in there, too. When we get things moved around in the Gryffindor house we’ll move you back.”

Laura nodded and looked back at the knocker waiting for the riddle. She never really thought of herself as smart or clever, but why not at least try? It could be fun. The knocker waited for the Professor to be gone, once the footsteps had faded away he looked at me and sighed. “If you have it, you want to share it. If you share it, you don’t have it. What is it?”

Laura closed her eyes for a second, different things running through her mind. Her thoughts were all over the place and sometimes she was a bit scatter brained, but this was different. She took hold of one of her thoughts running through her head and opened her eyes. With confidence, she looked into the eagle’s eyes and said, “A secret.”

The knocker smiled and nodded, going back to a solid state it opened the door and Laura walked it. It was quite beautiful. While the Gryffindor common room had been cozy and comforting, the Ravenclaw common room was elegant. It had silked hung up against the walls and arched windows with beautiful blue and bronze silk pillows on the sills so that kids could sit and read there. It was later in the night so a lot of kids were most likely asleep.

Laura wasn’t sure where she was going. She looked around the room for a staircase or something that she could go to the beds. She was very confused and instead of finding the beds she ended up wandering into a small library lined from the floor to ceiling with books. She smiled as she ran a hand over the binding of a few and pulled one out. She opened it to the smell of old worm pages filling her nose. It was nice. She kinda wished she was put into Ravenclaw because the library itself was beautiful. Gryffindor had one but it was considerably smaller and a lot of the books seemed to be on a sport called quidditch.

As she looked at the books, in the corner of her eye she saw a flash of black run past her and she jumped, looking around, trying to pinpoint the source. But nothing was there. She went back to looking at the books but still felt as though something was watching her. It was kind of uncomfortable. Until something covered her eyes and breathe on her ear. “Guess who?”

Laura laughed and turned around and hugged the girl who was behind her. She was in a oversized t-shirt that had some sort of graphic on it be Laura couldn’t make it out while hugging her. She was also wearing black basketball shorts, from what Laura could tell but thats it. Carmilla laughed and pulled away, “Well, cupcake, isn’t someone happy to see me?”

 

Laura only laughed in response. Carmilla grabbed her hand and pulled her to the beds. All of the Ravenclaw first year girls were sleeping. Laura was pulled to a bed that had a trunk with the letters L. Hollis printed neatly on the side. She noticed a black and orange lump sleeping on the bed and walked over to pet him.

“When I tried to get you a bed next to mine the others refused to budge, so I sicked Azazel on them. They all move as far away as they could.” Carmilla laughed and sat down on the bed next to her’s. That’s when Laura noticed the girls were all towards the front of the room while they were in the back.

Laura asked Carmilla to turn around as she changed into her pyjamas, she was slightly uncomfortable with people being there but since about all of them were asleep she was okay with it. When Carmilla turned back around Laura was already crawling into her bed sleepily. She heard Carmilla laugh as she also crawled into her bed and they blew out the light in the lamp. She watched Carmilla fall asleep and waited for the blackness to come to her. But it never did.

She kept worrying about tomorrow and the rest of the year, will people like her? Will she do good in her classes? She was so worried about these thing she didn’t realize a hour had past of her just thinking about what could happen. She then thought about what she had now. She had a friend. A best friend. And then she had LaFontaine and Perry. They seemed nice. Then Kirsch and Danny. She felt as though they were going to be a problem from time to time. But they were still going to be friends, and it made her happy. She slowly drifted into sleep as she watched Carmilla breathe evenly in the bed next to hers.

~~~~~~~~~

Laura woke up with a start. It was the middle of the night and she could feel a cold sweat all over her body. Her breathing was heavy and eyes wide. She looked around to see all the other girls were still asleep, she looked out the window and knew by where the moon was that it couldn’t be past three am. Her eyes followed the moon’s beams of light to see Carmilla was sitting on the window sill looking up at the sky. Her porcelain skin gleamed in the light and her coal black hair seemed to shimmer.

Laura tried to remember what her dream had been about but all she could remember was a blinding blackness and something watching her. It was as though the blackness was trying to eat her. But before she could delve any deeper she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Carmilla there with a worried look on her face, “Hey, Creampuff, what’s wrong?”

Suddenly, she felt a pain in her chest as a flash of her mother’s face covered Carmilla’s and she felt a tear in her eye. Before she knew what was happening, Carmilla was climbing into bed with her. She pulled Laura down and held her for a while, rubbing her back and humming a little tune trying to calm her down. Slowly, her breathing evened out and she held onto Carmilla as though she was her lifeline. She fell asleep in her arms, content and dreamless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow i-hate-me-but-i-love-you for updates and shiz


	4. Classes, Brooms, and Talent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Classes begin as Hogwarts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. I've been a bit busy IRL. So, uh, yeah. OH! So I'm looking for a bit of help on the story because I've stated this before but I want it to be a transition over their years at Hogwarts. Well I'm having a hard time trying to find a good place to break that off and start the fast forward for this year. If anyone would like to help, please contact me through Tumblr.

She was awoken by a tapping on her shoulder and a light shaking. Laura got to see a Ravenclaw girl waking them up, with a look of utter boredom that she didn’t give a crap of what they were doing. “Come on, get up, you’re gonna make us late. Breakfast in the great hall. You’re a Gryffindor, right? You’re gonna need to find your class head, get your schedule.”

Laura was still half asleep but nodded, the ravenclaw then walked away and Laura started to wake Carmilla up, “Come on, Carm. Wakey Wakey.”

She rolled around a bit and looked up at Laura sleepily. She then face planted into a pillow and fell back asleep and Laura shook her awake again. They both got up and changed. Carmilla had left the room for some reason and when she came back she was changed and ready to go. Laura did the same, a little self conscious around the Ravenclaw girls. Over the course of the day they got their schedules and realized they had a lot of classes together. They both looked them over carefully.

Laura’s Classes:  
First Hour: Potions  
Second Hour: Charms  
Third Hour: Transfiguration  
Fourth Hour: History of Magic  
Lunch  
Fifth Hour: Flying  
Sixth Hour: Defense Against the Dark Arts  
Seventh Hour: Herbology

Astronomy is held every Wednesday night, the requirements have been changed. You must attend at least once meeting once a month for the year.

Extracurriculars will take place after classes on assigned days, please pick one or multiple:   
Ancient Studies: Monday  
Art: Tuesday  
Earth Magic: Wednesday  
Muggle Art: Thursdays  
Music: Fridays  
Muggle Music: Saturday  
Ghoul Studies: Sunday (evenings during free time)

Carmilla’s Classes:

First Hour: Potions  
Second Hour: Herbology  
Third Hour: Transfiguration  
Fourth Hour: Charms  
Lunch  
Fifth Hour: Flying   
Sixth Hour: Defense Against the Dark Arts  
Seventh Hour: History of Magic

Astronomy is held every wednesday night, the requirements have been changed. You must attend at least once meeting once a month for the year.

Extracurriculars will take place after classes on assigned days, please pick one or multiple:   
Ancient Studies: Monday  
Art: Tuesday  
Earth Magic: Wednesday  
Muggle Art: Thursdays  
Music: Fridays  
Muggle Music: Saturday  
Ghoul Studies: Sunday (evenings during free time)

They had almost all of their classes together. Which was nice. Laura didn’t know any other first years. LaF and Perry were second years, and Danny and Kirsch (she’s not really sure if he’s a friend or not still) are third years. Professor Longbottom explained that this year the classes are going to have more than two classes in each class because of the lack of population.

During potions Laura noticed that there was at least one kid from every house in there. Carmilla was only one of 3 Ravenclaws, Laura was one of seven Gryffindors. Carmilla and Laura were partners and, much to the others dismay, ended up being the best ones. Laura had read her mother’s potion books and the notes in it probably a hundred times. And since Carmilla was working with wand cores and different ingredients at Ollivander’s she had a better-than-basic understanding of ingredients and how to handle them. Laura already liked potions, she liked to help her dad cook when she was at home so this was kind of like a reminder of her dad. Professor Slughorn was really nice too. He was actually quite surprised about Laura’s understanding of mixing ingredients. He seemed to already know Carmilla and made small talk with her after completing a simple boils remedy.

Charms was nice but kind of boring. They worked on a simple levitation charm. After a bit of practice she was able to get the hang of it. Her wand was a bit hard to handle though. But after she got it, it was quite easy afterwards. She was one of the first to get it. Behind her she heard a boy from Gryffindor whisper about her and she frowned, looking down. “God, why didn’t the hat just put her in Ravenclaw, the freaking egghead.”

She knew he had been in her potions class and was upset that Slughorn liked her. She was already becoming hated by her housemates. It was discouraging. Maybe she could stay in Ravenclaw or something? Like switch houses? But thats so cowardsome. She didn’t want to run. But what else she could do? Stay in a house that hates her? She shook her head and started to study a few other charms as the hour passed.

Laura got into the Transfiguration class first and got a seat up in the front. She watched the door and waited for Carmilla to walk in. As kids walked in she noticed two furry animals walk in, Bellamy and Azazel. She watched them walk in and her eyes drifted back up to the door to see Carmilla walk in. She stared at her for a few seconds, their eyes meeting for a brief second, before Carmilla took a seat in the farthest reaches of the class. Laura let out a moan and got up to sit by her. She placed her books on the desk and sat down in the open chair. Azazel and Bellamy hopped up on the desk and Azazel growled at Carmilla briefly before turning its attention towards Laura, wanting love.

Laura sighed, giving him a look of ‘don’t you dare growl at her’ before petting him behind his ears. Carmilla let out a laugh and watched Laura pet Azazel as she pet Bellamy. Class started and they waited for the teacher to come. After about five minutes a cat walked into the classroom and made it way to the front. It shrank and shifted into Headmistress Mcgonagall. Laura’s eyes had widened in surprise and she looked over to Carmilla to see if she was just as astounded. And she was, Laura could tell she was trying to hide it, but in the end her mouth was slightly gaping and her eyes watched McGonagall intently.

McGonagall, to Laura, seemed kind of mean but fair, but everytime she looked over to Carmilla she seemed fascinated with everything McGonagall had to say. Laura was happy Carmilla found something she really liked. When they were talking over the summer, even though she liked it, she wasn’t all about wands and such while working at Ollivander’s. This, though, Laura could tell was going to make her happy. 

For the first half of the period McGonagall explained how she was going to teach transfiguration like she used to before becoming headmistress. Something had happened to the teacher over summer break and she also missed it. She also proceeded to talk about the dangers of transfiguration. Laura consistently kept looking at Carmilla throughout the time. Although her body language made it look like she didn’t care, her eye said different, and it made Laura want to laugh.

Somewhere near the end of the period they were tasked to try and turn a book into a piece of fabric. After trying for five minutes and failing, Laura looked over to Carmilla and noticed a nice looking piece of fabric in front of her. Her feet were on the table and she was leaning back, waiting for McGonagall to come by. “Hey, Carm, can you help me?”

Her eyes had been closed and she opened one to look at her. She sighed and nodded, pulling out her wand and taking her feet off the table. “You need to be able to focus on what type fabric you want it to be, and how it was get there. It isn’t that hard really. Simple fabrics are much easier to do than complex or rarer fabrics. Try cotton. It’s easy enough.”

“Thats quite right, Ms. Karnstein.” They both looked up to see McGonagall there, standing over them listening. McGonagall grabbed Carmilla’s fabric and looked it over, her eyes widened at the nice looking fabric and the design. She looked back to Carmilla and then at her wand and back to her. “That’s a Hazel wand correct? Better for transfiguration. This is also very advanced transfiguring. I would like to see you after class, Ms. Karnstein.”

Laura looked over at Carmilla, who gulped and nodded. As they were released Laura said she’d see her at lunch and left. She watched Carmilla slowly walk up to McGonagall’s desk and that was. She had to get to History of Magic. Which was quite boring, for the most part. The teacher only went over the first chapter of the textbook which Laura had already read multiple times. Laura could answer just about all of the questions he asked the class, besides the ones about current events. She knew more than the Ravenclaws. It kind of made her proud. But it made the other kids mad.

On her walk back to the Great Hall a few of the Gryffindor first years made fun of her. A Hufflepuff noticed and offered her a seat at their table but she graciously declined. Instead of going into the Great Hall she took a detour and walked into the girls bathroom. Surprisingly, no one was there. So she went into one of the stalls and put her bag down. She then sat down on the toilet and brought her knees to her chest. A few tears dripped down her cheek and dropped onto her knees. This was going to be just like normal school, she thought.

She quietly weeped to herself in the stall. She wasn’t making much noise, but she didn’t notice when the bathrooms door opened. It was only after the footsteps got closer did she hear someone had walked in and she quieted herself.

“Laura?” She heard a soft voice say. It was Carmilla’s. She wiped her tears away when she heard her knock at the bathroom door. “Hey Laur, you in there?”

“Y-Yeah…” She said, her voice a little shaky.

She heard Carmilla let out a sigh, “Hey, what happened? I’ve been looking for you for ten minutes.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, g-go to the Great Hall, save me a seat. I’ll be out in a second.” Laura said, hoping she would have some time. Carmilla let out a groan and Laura waited till she heard the door close before gathering her stuff. She stepped out of the stall and went to the mirrors and the faucets. She turned one on before looking in the mirror and seeing the reflection of herself. She looked like she had been crying for hours rather than minutes.

The skin around her eyes were red and puffy, and they were a little bloodshot. She must have been crying harder than she thought. She brought some water to her face and washed. When she dried her face, she felt as though this may be a harder year than she wanted it to be. But she shook it off. She had Carmilla, LaFontaine, and Danny, even Perry and Kirsch. It’s already better than her old school. She has friends.

She walked out of the bathroom and looked around, she didn’t see anyone but suddenly arms wrapped around her and she saw Carmilla there. Laura giggled and hugged her back. They sparingly talked on their way to the Great Hall, Laura looked at the Gryffindor table, a few kids, kids from first and second year, scowled at her and she looked down, directing Carmilla to the Ravenclaw table.

They sat down next to LaFontaine and Perry, who greeted them nicely and they talked about their first days so far. Carmilla was reading a book about something called Animagi. It looked like a textbook that she saw one of the upperclassman carrying but she wasn’t sure. After a few minutes she felt a light tap on her shoulder and she swallowed what she was eating and looked up, it was Danny.

“Hey, girly, how’s your first day?” she smiled warmly at Laura.

“It’s pretty good. I like the potion’s class and Transfiguration seems as though it’ll be tough.” Laura laughed a little. Carmilla groaned when Danny laughed and sat next to Laura.

“Yeah, it’s always a kind of tough class, I’m actually pretty good at it though, so if you need help ask me.” She smiled and place a hand on Laura’s shoulder. Laura nodded and took a bite of a cookie. Danny waited for her to swallow before continuing. “So why aren’t you at the Gryffindor table?”

Laura felt a small twinge of guilt in her chest but shook it off, trying to forget about the other first years in her house. “N-No reason, it’s just I don’t know any of them and I wanted to sit with my friends and uh…”

“Well, you’re not going to know them unless you talk to them, here, lets go together I’m sure they’ll love you.” Danny grabbed her hand, and Laura tried to resist. Carmilla could clearly see the discomfort on Laura face, though, and intervened. 

“Hey, Iron Giant, can’t you see she doesn’t want to go. Have some decency and leave her alone.” She said, pushing away Danny’s hand and grabbing a hold of Laura’s.

“Hey, first year, Laura can make decisions on her own, so let her decide.” She scowled at Carmilla and looked at Laura, as to try and get her to follow.

Laura looked down, “I-I’m sorry Danny, I just want to be with my friends. I don’t really think they like me all that much anyways… Y-You can still sit here if you like? You’re my friend too.”

She looked back up at Danny, who had sort of a pained face on, but shook her head, “No, it’s okay. I have to study, anyways. Have fun, I’ll see you in the Common Room tonight?”

Laura nodded and watched her walk away. Laura let out a groan and hit her head against the table. In which Laf laughed and Perry sighed. Carmilla only put an arm around her and whispered, “Hey, you don’t have to be friends with her if you don’t want to.”

Laura looked up at her and shook her head. They finished lunch and parted ways with Laf and Perry. Carmilla and her had Flying together, so they walked together. It was quiet, Laura didn’t really want to talk, and Carmilla was okay with it. The beginning was boring and the teacher was mean. A lot of the kids in this class were wizard world raised so they all had at least a basic understanding of a Broomstick. Laura had a book on it, but not really about flying it, more about the history of flying. The period progressed and Laura kept messing up mounting the broom. Carmilla was able to show her how and they were allowed to hover for a bit.

The teacher was called into the school and she told everyone to keep their feet on the ground. When she left a few kids lifted off and started to hover around a little. Laura and Carm left their feet on the ground though, they were holding hands. Laura kept her gaze on the ground as a kid came by and started to make fun of her.

Carmilla started to yell at them but they only laughed it off and continued to pick on Laura, “Aw, can the little Mudblood not speak for herself? Or is she just that big a coward to do so? Merlin, why are you even in Gryffindor? You’re such a wimp, you shouldn’t even be in Hogwarts.”

At this point Carmilla threw a punch at him, but he dodged it and grabbed the clip in Laura’s hair and set off. Laura touched the place on her head where the clip was, now empty. It was the only Laura thought she had of her mother’s. She wore it everyday. She looked up at the boy, who was ten feet off the ground, dangling it. Laura chased after him, broomstick in hand, trying to get it, but he was too high.

Laura looked over to Carmilla who was about to go after him on her broom, but Laura stopped her, “This is my battle, Carm.”

“But he took your clip! Come on! One punch, that’s all it takes!” She yelled and Laura shook her head. Laura cautiously got onto her broom and lifted off the ground, hovering a few minutes before going after him.

“Aw, does the mudblood think she can keep up with me? My brother is captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team! I’ve learned from the best!” The boy said, he was a Gryffindor. Laura didn’t know siblings could be in different houses. She didn’t care though. She roughly went after him, her broom skills weren’t there yet so it was sloppy at first. The boy only laughed and pulled away, backing up.

Laura sped up and ran into him, knocking him off balance and catching him by surprise. He almost dropped the clip as Laura reached for it, but he pushed her away and flew a few feet back, “You’re gonna regret that! C’mon guys, lets teach her a lesson.”

Two other boys, both in Gryffindor, lifted into the air and laughed at Laura, who was trying to regain her balance. She heard Carmilla scowl and she heard her lift into the air. “You, niffler-faced, scumbags are gonna pay.” They only laughed and came after them, the boy who had Laura’s clip, though, was flying away from them. She looked at Carmilla for guidance, who cursed under her breath and looked to Laura, “I’ll distract these two, nimrods, you go get your clip, I haven’t seen you without it so my guess is that its important. Go. You can do it, creampuff.”

Laura nodded and took off towards the boy. She couldn’t see what was happening but she heard a large grunt from one of the boys behind her and she smiled a little. If Carmilla could do this, so could she.

She sped up towards the boy who looked behind himself to see her. “Aw, does the little creampuss think she can beat me?”

Laura cringed a little at the use of Carmilla’s nickname being twisted like that. She suddenly got really angry. She sped up towards the boy, a look a hate in her eyes as she pulled out her wand. What was the spell in the one book that was supposed to stun your enemy? Stupidy? Stupify? She could just barely remember it. All she could remember is that it would render a person unconscious or halt a moving object. They were too high, if she made him go unconscious then fall and possibly die. That would be bad.

She pointed her wand towards his broom, he was going in a beeline towards the Forbidden Forest. “STUPEFY!”

She could hear gasps from the student behind her and the broom immediately stopped and started to fall. She watched the boy try and start it back up, and it did. But he was so off balance that he fell and was dangling off the broom by his fingertips. She flew over to him and punched him in the stomach. Her clip had been in his mouth and he coughed, releasing the clip. It didn’t have any spit on it, when she stopped it from falling.

She decided to not help him, she just turned around and head back towards the school. She landed a bit sloppily but dismount to a large and suffocating hug, “Looks like the creampuff had a pack to her punch.”

Laura laughed as Carmilla squeezed her. A few Slytherin came by and congratulated her and a few Hufflepuffs made small conversation. The other Gryffindors were standing away from her, trying to help the two boys Carmilla had beating to a pulp. There was a loud whistle though and they all looked over to see the teacher, she looked as though steam was coming out of her ears and she walked towards them. “What, in the bloody hell, were you doing?!”

Laura looked down, ashamed, “Well, ah, you see that boy had, uh-”

She was cut off by cheering and footstep coming towards her. “Dude, bro, that was freaking amazing!”

They all looked towards the courtyard entrance to see a older boy, Kirsch, and a few other upperclassmen coming towards them. The oldest boy must have been a sixth year. He looked like a meat head and was kind of intimidating. They all were sporting Gryffindor ties and robes, and were gawking at Laura. “Dude that was amazing. Where did you learn to fly like that? Your muggle raised right? Cause we saw the whole thing and that was so cool.”

Laura blushed and Madam Hooch only sighed. “Okay, Ms. Hollis, Ms. Karnstein, and anyone a part of the fight come with me. You boys too.” They all did. They entered the school and went into a office, that seemed to be Madam Hooch’s. Laura and Carmilla stood at one side of the room while the three bullies stood at the other. The upperclassmen in the middle. “Okay, Ms. Hollis, please explain what happened.”

Laura nodded and took in a deep breath. You couldn’t tell, because her and Carmilla were standing so close but they were holding hands. “It was nothing, j-just kids fooling around.”

Carmilla let out a groan and the boys relaxed, as though they were out of the clear. Kirsch, though, stepped forward and shook his head, “That is so not what happened. Me and the boys had a free period and we wanted to watch you guys do something stupid. So we saw the whole thing. This nimrod right here,” He pointed to the leader of the pack, “decided to pick on Laura, he called her names and took her clip and flew away. And then Laura, which by the way this was super awesome, went after him. She had probably never had flew a broom before and got on and went after him. That takes guts, girl, and natural talent. Anyways, she goes after him, right? Well he summons his two little jerkface friends and they fly up too. At this point, little mama over there,” He points to Carmilla, “is on her broom. Well Laura goes after him and Carmilla stays back and fight the two goons. Which, may I say, was freaking awesome! She totally took them down without breaking a sweat. And all the while, Laura is gaining on the twerp there. She then pulls out her wand and uses a stunning spell! And not just any stunning spell, but THE stunning spell. How did you even learn that!? Anyways, so the twerp is hanging off his broom, so Laura punches him in the gut and gets her clip and flies back. It was, like, the coolest thing I’ve seen since second year!”

Laura blushes and looks down, squeezing Carmilla’s hand tightly. Hooch sighs and looks at the boys and the girls, shaking her head, “Detention for the boys.”

They groan and look at each other then at the girls. The older boy then walks up to Laura, smiling oddly at her before introducing himself, “Hey, my name is Conrad, I’m captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team. Now, normally we don’t accept anyone second year or lower but you, are an exception. Our seeker graduated last year and we were going to hold tryout for a new one but I think you are what we need. Would you, like, want to be on the team?”

Laura looked up at him wide-eyed and confused for a second, she then slowly nodded and looked back down. The leader of the bully’s groaned and looked at Laura and the upperclassmen, “Her? You want HER? She’s a filthy mudblood who can’t tell left from right! I should be the new seeker! I know what I’m doing!”

Kirsch walked over to the boy and pushed him to the ground, “You have a problem with muggle born, twerp? You want to be on the quidditch team when you act like that? You’re just a spoiled brat. You would never make it on the quidditch team or with the Zetas. You’re worse than a Slytherin, you’re a deatheater, you’re a slug.”

The boy looked terrified and him and his goonies left. Madam Hooch only shook her head and looked down, “Well then, Ms. Hollis, since you’re now on the Quidditch team you won’t have to take the Flying class. I’ll inform Headmistress McGonagall, as well as Longbottom. You’re gonna need to explain why you know a stunning spell at your age.”

Laura gulped and nodded, squeezing Carmilla’s hand. They both looked at each other, you could tell everything from Laura’s face, like a open book. Carmilla was trying to be dark and broody, but her eyes were filled with wonder and excitement.

Sadly they had to part ways, Carmilla had to finish up Flying class and Conrad wanted to talk to Laura about how much she knew about Quidditch and how much he would have to teach her on free period. Laura knew the very basics of it, due to a book her mother had owned. Conrad, although he looked dumb, was actually fairly intelligent than what he let on to believe. He actually inquired about her mother and he knew who she was. She was the quidditch team captain for her final year at Hogwarts and was a very good Keeper, one of the best the school had seen in years.

When the period was over she walk to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. This was the class she was really worried about. She had read the book for it probably the most, if not it was in the top five of all the books her mother had left her. She walked into the classroom and noticed that she was the first. She took a seat in the back, near a window, she figured if she were to sit in the front Carmilla wouldn’t follow, and this was the last class they would have together.

Kids filed in and she noticed a few kids who had bullied her before in History of Magic there. Carmilla was the last to enter, besides the teacher who wasn’t here yet. Carmilla looked very distressed, as though she was also worried to take this class. When Carmilla sat down next to her she immediately took Laura’s hand and squeezed it harshly. Laura looked her over and she was really tense. She tried to play it off as calm, but Laura could tell it was something different.

There was a loud cough in the front of the room and they looked up to see a very, how to put it, sly looking woman there. They hadn’t even heard her come in. She was wearing a black cloak and a pant suit under it, very professional. She looked around the class and her eyes landed on Laura and Carmilla. She looked them both over before looking right into Carmilla’s eyes and giving her an evil grin. Laura could feel her tense more than she already was.

“Why, hello there, Carmilla, long time, no see.” She said before walking a little closer. She walked all the way up to their desk and Laura was able to get a better look at her. Her dark auburn hair was stunning, it looked like Mahogany. Two piercing green eyes looked over Laura once more, making her uncomfortable, before the settled back on Carmilla. She place a pale hand underneath her chin and lifted her face up slowly, bringing her eye’s to Carmilla’s.

Carmilla let out a loud gulp before quietly saying, “Hello, Mother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow i-hate-me-but-i-love-you for chapter updates and me making things like really crappy fan art or shiz IDK or go to that tumblr and message me with ideas on how to transition or shiz. Please comment or tell me what you think and stuff too cause I get super flustered and happy when people comment and stuff.


	5. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so sorry this took so long. I didn't mean to take this long but my life has been pretty hectic. Here it is.

No one else in the room must had heard them, they were all in there own conversations. But Laura did. And she looked at them both shocked. Laura had never seen Carmilla seem this weak. It was scary. Laura watched them interact, and it was so tense you could cut the air with a knife. After a few long minutes of small talk, well she thinks it was small talk it was mostly just the teacher asking Carmilla a few thing and her nodding yes and no, the teacher left for the front of the room and began to talk, introducing herself as Professor Dean. 

The period was tense and Carmilla never let go of Laura’s hand. Luckily, Laura was left handed and Carmilla was holding her right hand, so she could at least take notes. Most of the class was spent talking about what they would be learning for the year. Towards the end though they got on the topic of defensive spells. At which point Professor Dean turned to Laura and with a smirk she spoke, “So I hear from Headmistress McGonagall that you, Ms. Hollis, know a stunning spell. Where did you learn that?”

Laura looked up from her notes and to Dean, who was staring at her and so was the rest of the class. There were about three or four that had seen her on the field use the spell, but no one else. Dean folded her arms waiting for a response and Laura felt a squeeze in her hand, she looked over to Carmilla, who nodded and encouraged her to speak. She nodded slowly and looked up at Professor Dean, “I, uh, when I was little would read my mother’s textbooks, I didn’t know they were magic but I loved reading them, and uh, I kind of just remembered it…”

Laura trailed off, hoping she would dropped it, but she just cocked an eyebrow and, still smirking, asked, “Oh, well, that means you must know loads of spells. Am I correct?”

Laura looked down at her and Carmilla’s clutched hand. She did, she knew loads, but could she cast them? She had no clue. She never tried them out, as a child she thought they were all fake, there was no point. She only shrugged, not wanting to meet Dean or the class’s gaze. Carmilla’s hand tightened around her’s and she heard a cold laugh from the Professor. “Hm, surely you know more, you can expand on your knowledge of spells later, in private, not today though, I am busy.”

Laura nodded quietly, for the last ten minutes she talk about things that Laura wasn’t listening to. All she could focus on is Carmilla’s hand and her own thoughts. She hated being put on the spot like that, but now some more of the kids were going to pick on her mostly likely because she saw some of the dirty looks that they gave her. The period ended and Laura and Carmilla were the first ones out of the room.

When they were a safe Carmilla quickly grabbed Laura and hugged her. Tightly holding onto the small as though she were holding onto life itself. Laura could hear Carmilla breathing heavily and sniffling. After a few minutes Carmilla pulled away and looked down, her breathing had calmed and her face was contorted in such a manner that worried Laura, “Carm? What’s wrong? It wasn’t that bad.”

“No, it was. She should never of put you on the spot like that. It was my fault, she noticed you were my friend and she wanted to embarrass us. I really am-” Laura put a hand to Carmilla’s mouth, hoping it would shut her up. Laura shook her head and giggled a little, trying to let her know it was okay. 

“Calm down, you broody little witch. Look, she didn’t embarrass me or you. It was my fault I used the stunning spell, of course it was going to get back to her, she’s the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, I just didn’t think it was going to be that soon. I guess word travels fast around here. Now come on, I have to get to Herbology and you have,” Laura thought for a second, trying to remember what Carmilla’s schedule was, “History of Magic?”

Carmilla nodded and Laura dragged her towards the Great Hall. After walking in silence for a few minutes they were finally at the the entrance of the hall. Laura gave her a tight squeeze of her hand before running off to go to herbology, Professor Longbottom taught it, she thought, or at least she thought that was what Carmilla said. She entered the greenhouse to which she saw Longbottom there and a few students. The period started and it went along with no trouble. She got a few stares after answering a few questions correctly but that was all.

When the period ended she was approached by the Professor. He looked kind of worried when he said that she should talk to him when the students were all gone and she got a few looks from leaving kids. After they had left she walked up to him and he sighed, placing a small pot on the table and looking to her.

“So I, uh, heard from Headmistress about a few things that may have happened in flying today?” He said, busying his hand with things to do like caring for the small potted plant in front of him. Laura nodded, looking down, worried if this was a bad thing or not. “Well, uh, congratulations on making the quidditch team, they haven’t accepted anyone under second year or younger is about eight years so good on you. But there is another pressing matter I am forced to talk to you about.”

Laura looked up at him, a little confused, but a little happy that he was happy for her. “Yes?”

“Well, besides the fact you used a spell that is only taught to fourth years, at the earliest. And your teachers seemed to noticed that you may or may not know more than your peers.” He said, clipping at a few leaves on a plant. Laura nodded slowly, watching him care for the organism. “Well, uh, you see, a few teachers wanted to place you in a upperclassmen class for a few subjects. But I wouldn’t allow it, I may not be the smarting man here but I can tell when there is tension between students and there seems to be something going on between you and the other Gryffindors. How many books have you read that the upperclassmen read?”

Laura thought for a second, when she saw the upperclassmen walk by she would notice books that she had read multiple times. When she met and talked to Conrad she looked through his books and noticed she had read just about all of them, he was a six year. “I, uh, know I’ve read books up to six year, b-but I’m not sure after that.”

Longbottom nodded and sighed. “Well, uh, I remember you mentioning something about having access to your mother’s old books so that doesn’t surprise me. Um, since I don’t want to ostracize you from the others more than you seem to be, would you be okay if some of the teachers were to give you upperclassmen work, but you still be a part of their class. Maybe as like extra credit? Or tutoring from upperclassmen? I’m not quite sure. Because it just seems to be a shame that-”

She cut him off, “Professor you’re rambling. I would be fine with extra credit or something, but just because I know of something doesn’t mean I know how to do it. Being able to perform that spell on the first try was a one in a million chance. If you want to give me extra stuff to study I’m fine with it, but I need to learn how to put the stuff I learn into action still.”

Longbottom stood there, a little confused staring at the girl who had probably just said the smartest thing a 11 year old has ever said to him. But he then nodded and quietly said, “Okay, yes, of course. Um, apparently your bed is ready in Gryffindor, your stuff has been moved. If the kids ever give you any trouble, please tell me. And, um, oh! Professor Dean told me that she would like to meet with you about your knowledge of defensive spells sooner or later.”

 

Laura gulped and nodded, she wasn’t sure what she was more scared about. She took him stopping his speaking as a cue to leave and she hurriedly left the room and headed straight for the Gryffindor common room. She wanted to make sure that Azazel was okay. She also needed to write a letter to her father about the good parts of the days events.  
~~~~~~~~~~~

The year started to go by really quickly for Laura. After a few weeks of studying she was already learning about third year material (although she could probably be on fifth year if she really tried). It was kind of tough to balance studying, quidditch, and friendship but she was able to make it work.

School actually wasn’t as difficult as she thought it would be. In fact she loved it and helped Carmilla where she could. Carmilla was especially bad at Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and although DADA wasn’t Laura’s favorite class either she still helped her. She was getting a lot of extra school work but she wasn’t forced to do it. It was mostly just extra reading and since Laura loved to read it was okay with her. Although, Professor Dean liked to called Laura after classes and talk to her. It was really blurry, a lot of their conversations, Laura guessed she was only faded in and out because she didn’t really like her. She was arrogant and mean, but she couldn’t pinpoint an exact conversation for some reason. 

Quidditch was wonderful. Laura was actually a decent seeker and out of 4 games Laura caught the snitch 3 times, including the championship game. But sadly they didn’t win. Kirsch accidently threw a foul right as Laura had caught it, making them down by ten points. See, the only people on the team that liked Laura were Kirsch and anyone above fourth year. If you were a third year (which they had quite a few) She was most likely not liked. Actually. once while in a game with Hufflepuff one of the third year beaters ‘accidently’ hit a bludger towards Laura. It hit her in the side and she almost fell off her broom. She didn’t break anything but she got a nasty bruise. Carmilla just about beat the magic out of him. It took Perry, Laura, and LaF to keep her away from him.

Even though some of the team didn’t like her the others did, she actually helped most of the team with homework and spells and stuff when she wasn’t with Carmilla. It was nice. Kirsch was great. Even though he was a little girl obsessed he was probably the sweetest person she had ever met. He was muggle born too and so was LaF and Perry so they all had tons to talk about. Carmilla was muggle raised too, even though she was a pureblood, but she didn’t really keep in the loop after her father made her go back to the wizard world, so a lot of their talking as a group was spent catching Carmilla up on what had been happening.

Laura hated living in the Gryffindor dorms though. She would try and stay out for as long as she could, even sneak into the Ravenclaw dorm during the day just to get away. But when it was bedtime she was stuck. When that did happen she would be in the Common room, it was open enough so the first and second years wouldn’t pick on her because if one of the upperclassmen came through then they would be busted. But when she went to bed they would play pranks on her. She had nightmares often too. The same type as on the first night. She wanted to sneak up to Carmilla’s dorm so bad and lay with her, but she couldn’t. So when she had nightmares she would go to the common room and sit on the window sill.

Her and Danny got along fairly well, although she was kind of mean to Carmilla and never really understood what her and the others would talk about. So when her and Danny would hang out it would be just them. Danny would often go to Hogsmeade and bring her back candy. They would eat it in the common room and share stories. Laura once asked her why she wasn’t on the Quidditch team and Danny immediately started going on about how about she would make a much better Keeper than Conrad, and it kind of got to Laura because even though they didn’t hang out much he was still her friend. 

When Christmas came around Laura went home to be with her father, while Perry, LaF, Danny, and Kirsch also went home. Carmilla was the only one who stayed and it made Laura feel a little bad that she didn’t stay with her. But they exchanged letters on a daily basis. Carmilla seemed like she was having a fun time with the whole castle to herself. Laura on the other hand, not so much. She was happy to see her father but the neighbor kids found out she was back and started to do things like pick on her when she went to the market and such. It kind of hurt her feelings that even though she had been gone for multiple months that they still pick on her and she couldn’t use magic to get back at them. So for most of her time back home she was in her room sipping hot chocolate, or her dad was begging her to share stories.

Her and the others exchanged letters often during holiday. Apparently LaF and Perry were best friends as children and both had powers, so they got to stay together. Kirsch was with his family and she got a bunch of funny picture if him and one of his older sisters beating each other up. Danny was at some sort of old family castle with her family and she sent Laura a lot of presents for Christmas like candy and little toys. It made Laura sad that she didn’t get her anything in return so she went out to the market and got her some muggle candy and the book Lord of the Rings in an attempt to make things even. Carmilla, though, was another story. Throughout the entire break they exchanged letters and drawings. Carmilla was was great at art and would draw her little sceneries around the school. Laura wasn’t very artsy but she would draw little characters and animals in a cartoonish way. 

On christmas day Laura sent Tolkien away with a fairly large present attached. She smiled to herself, knowing Carmilla would get mad at her for sending such a large present but Laura was happy to send it. A few hours later Tolkien returned with a oddly wrapped red letter. The second she opened it it came to life and it created a weird paper face. It stared at her for a second but suddenly a loud voice emitted from the paper and it shocked her. “LAURA WHAT THE BLOODY HELL? WHY DID YOU SEND ME A BRAND NEW ART KIT FOR CHRISTMAS? THATS WAY TOO MUCH GODDAMMIT.”

The then ripped itself to shreds and then Tolkien had something in his beak, it looked like a folded piece of paper. She took it out of his mouth and, on inspection, looked to be a thicker piece, like something you get from a sketch book. Laura unfolded the paper to show a charcoal sketch of her and Carmilla, sitting in front of the window sill in the Ravenclaw dorm, just like how Carmilla was that first night.

Laura smiled to herself and carefully put the drawing in her desk drawer. She wanted to keep it safe.

She returned from winter break and they all caught up about their adventures. We dad had made her a ton of cookies so half of her suitcase was filled with the sugary treats. At the first dinner back she brought a tin and her, Carmilla, Perry, LaF, Kirsch and Danny shared cookies and ate together. Laura had to make sure Danny and Carm would kill each other, and they were getting weird stares from the other houses, well mostly just Gryffindor. Beside that though they had a good time.

The rest of the year was mostly uneventful. Kids still picked fun at Laura and even though the season was over she still had practice. On her free time, she would go to one of the towers with Carmilla and she would read while Carm painted some scenery. It was nice, and as spring came in the pictures Carm did changed. Laura also noticed that Carm liked to draw people, specifically Laura. She used charcoal to create people while using paint for scenery. It was a nice little thing that they shared. 

Weeks went by in a flash, it was took quickly before they were in their final days. This had been the best year of her life. She made friends and learned magic and it was amazing. Kirsch had left early for the year, something about having to see off his sister to college or something, so they had a goodbye already. LaF and Perry took the first train home and so did Danny. Carmilla and Laura though wanted to spend one last day together. Laura knew her dad was not going to let her go to Diagon Alley by herself so she only had a limited time to spend with Carm.

They were on the roof of one of the towers. It was quite. Laura could feel a slight breeze and she laid on the ground, watching the clouds go by. It made her happy that the last day was so calming. Azazel was laying on an edge sleeping while Bellamy was curled up on a chair next to Carmilla who was painting. Laura closed her eyes and listened to the soft purring of the animals and in the distance she heard the fluttering of the wing of a few stray owls. She was so happy.

She felt something push on her side and she looked next to her to see Carmilla laying down and looking up at the sky. She looked different. Distressed. It was weird. She always looked agitated and broody, but that was a act, this was real. She looked older too. Different from when they first met at Ollivanders. She was taller, they started at about the same height but Carm was now a good two inches taller than her. Which was kind of upsetting but it wasn’t her fault. Her hair was less fuzzy and darker than it had already been. It was weird. Laura felt as though she looked the same throughout the entire year.

“What’s wrong, creampuff?” She said quietly, her eyes still pointed towards the sky but she slowly shut them, waiting for a reply.

“N-Nothing, what makes you think that?” Laura stuttered out. Looking away from Carmilla.

“Well you’ve been really quiet and you haven’t even touched the book you brought.” She said, turning her head towards Laura but her eyes were still close. “C’mon you can tell me.”

“It’s just, I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here, forever. With LaF, Perry, Kirsch, Danny, and you, especially you.” Laura sighed. Opening her eyes to see Carmilla’s beautiful dark brown eyes staring at her. They pierced through her and made her felt weak, but safe.

“Cupcake, don’t worry. We’ll talk over the summer and maybe your overprotective dad will let you visit me. Worst comes to worst then I have to ditch Ollivander to see you. Don’t worry,” She said, placing her hands behind her head as a pillow. Laura just watched her and nodded.

~~~~~~~~~

The next few hours were a blur. It went by so quickly Laura almost got whiplash. All Laura could clearly remember is getting off the train and Carmilla not being there. No hand to hold, like when she got off the train to find her father beginning of winter break. Laura finally met up with her father and they drove home. Waiting for her was a owl with a note in its beak. Laura opened up the folded piece of paper and saw a little charcoal drawing of herself and Carmilla on the roof top. Laura was reading and Carm was drawing, but this was different. Laura’s head was in Carm’s lap as she drew and Carm was smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow i-hate-me-but-i-love-you for chapter updates and stuff.


	6. Laura's House Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmilla goes to Laura's house, part one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SOOOOOOO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!!!! I had a nasty case of writers block and I was also super busy with school stuff. I'll hopefully be updating more often, probably once a week, I don't know, I don't like putting deadlines on things.

Laura woke up with a start. Looking around her room to find nothing but darkness to greet her. She looked at her bedside table. 2:49 AM. Great. She groaned and laid back down on her pillow, looking up at the ceiling. She was having to same dreams again. They dreams she thought she had rid herself of over the year. She could barely remember any of it. Only a pair of yellow eyes, something that seemed like ravens, and a horrible choking feeling. It scared her to death not knowing what it was. She slowly closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to rid herself of the awful thought.

She slowly got up, knowing that she wasn’t going to go back to sleep anytime soon. It had only been two weeks since school let out and although she was keeping in touch with the others, she just felt so alone. Carmilla was constantly checking up on her. Carm knew briefly that the kids in her neighborhood didn’t like her through some unwanted prying. It was unneeded, since she didn’t leave the house much. But every once in a while when she went out a kid would trying and push her down or something. She didn’t tell Carmilla though, she didn’t want her to worry.

Laura made her way to the bathroom and turned on the water, making sure to turn the water to searing hot. She slowly stripped away her clothing and got into the steaming hot shower. The water burned her skin and if she still had any sleep in her before it was gone now. She let the water burn her skin and waited for her body to slowly adjust to it before washing her hair and body. She slowly got out and dried herself off. When she got back to her room she heard a tapping sound at her window and saw Grimson there, holding a letter in his beak, waiting to be let in.

Laura smiled at the old owl and let him in, taking the letter from his mouth and giving him access to Tolkien’s food bowl. Laura slowly opened the letter and looked at the pretty but slightly sloppy handwriting there.

Hey,

Is everything okay? I woke up and got this bad feeling that something happened. Sorry if I woke you up. Oh I have the day off tomorrow and was wondering if you want to hang out? I know your dad won’t let you come to Diagon, but maybe I could find my way to you? I don’t know. Message me back when you get this.

~Carm

Laura smiled at the message and, for a second, forgot about the pain in her back from the hot water. She walked over to her desk and got out a piece of paper, a quill, and a ink well.

Hiya,

Yeah I’m fine, just a not-so-great dream. And yeah! Lets hang! I’ve missed hanging out with you even though all we do is read and do art things. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll make cookies and hot cocoa!

Love ya,  
Laura

She sent Grimson off and went to lay down in her bed. Her heart was beating and her back hurt. But she forgot about the pain and slowly fell asleep. Her eyes fluttering shut and her last thoughts were of Carmilla’s brody smirk. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Laura woke up with a start. She was about to get dressed when she heard a tapping at her window. She looked to see Grimson there with a letter. Laura let in Grimson and took the letter. It said that Carm would be there at 12ish and that she would be getting there by bike. Laura smiled and looked at the alarm clock at the side of her bed. 11:15 am. Laura eyes widened as she hurried up and got dressed. Putting on a oversized sweater and a pair of jeans. She ran downstairs and her father was at the table reading a newspaper. He looked up at her from the top of the paper and raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so excited?”

“Carmilla’s coming over!” Laura smiled and started to get supplies from the cupboards. Sugar, milk, eggs, chocolate chips, everything she would need to make a quick batch of cookies. Normally a parent wouldn’t let their child cook in the kitchen and have a friend over without prior notice but Mr. Hollis let this slide on the fact that this was the first time she would have a friend over ever.

After Laura had made a decent amount of cookies she put the remaining cookie dough in a container and put it in the fridge, she would either cook it later or eat it as is. She looked at the clock and noticed it was 11:53. Laura ran and put on her yellow converse and ran out the door. She ran down the street and got to a stop sign Carmilla should be passing to get to her house. She waited there. Looking around, waiting for a bike to come along, but it didn’t. She looked around and her eyes landed on a few boys standing in a driveway near. She knew them, they were mean and rude to her and they had been staring.

Her attention was ripped away from them as she felt arms wrap around her from behind and soft but slightly raspy words whisper in her ear, “Guess who?”

Laugh erupted from Laura as she turned around and grabbed onto the girl with the wavy black hair and dark brown eyes. She was now much taller than Laura. Carmilla was now a good two or three inches taller than the tiny girl in front of her. Making it so Laura’s face pushed into her shoulder nicely. The two girls giggles subsided and they pulled apart to look at one another. Carmilla looked older, her voice was not only deeper but her facial features were more defined. It was weird and Laura didn’t notice it until now. Maybe it was because Laura used to see her every day and now it had been a month.

Carmilla smirked at the smaller girl, “You haven’t changed at all, have you, creampuff?”

Laura pouted and pulled away fully, taking a few steps back. Carmilla only shook her head and leaned down to get her bike. It was a completely black bike, it looked like it was spray painted that way because even the spokes and chrome was black. It looked like a bmx bike. They started to walk towards Laura’s house. Laura talking about her summer, about all she has read and such, leaving out her skirmishes with the neighbor kids. Laura heard bikes set off behind them and the sound of spokes hitting a baseball card or something was coming closer. Laura tried to ignore it and keep talking but the worry was leaking out of her and showing on her face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carmilla watched as the kids from before ride up next to her and Laura, who was visibly uncomfortable with the boy’s close proximity to them. Carmilla was becoming frustrated that they were downing Laura’s mood. There were two of them following them. The bigger of the two spoke. “Hello there, girly, why are you hanging out with a pipsqueak like this one? Why don’t you show us what you can do on that bike? It’s gotta be so much more interesting than hanging out with this nerd.”

“Buzz off, you stupid little flies.” She growled at them, not looking away from Laura. Whose face was to the ground and not looking up. This made Carmilla more irritated. The boys only laughed and got closer to them. 

“Mean words for such a cutie. C’mon let us show you around. Let the pipsqueak go read her books,” He said, his was off his bike and walking next to Carmilla. He grabbed her arm and she flinched. But suddenly in a blur she grabbed his arm and flipped him over her head. He was now on the ground, wheezing. The other kid was gaping at his friend and Carmilla and Laura let out a little giggle.

The boy glared at Laura as she giggled and he yelled, “Oh you think this is funny, momma’s girl? Opps sorry, I forgot. Lars, show her what it’s like to fall down.”

The other boy pushed Laura into a mud puddle on the side of the rode and Carmilla jumped him. Biting his neck with oddly sharp teeth and pushing him to the ground. The boy named Lars looked at her terrified and ran. She looked at the other boy who quickly got up and ran after Lars. She then shook her head, as though she was trying to get rid of something on her face.

Carmilla immediately went to Laura and helped her up. Her entire right side was covered in dirty water and Carmilla took off her leather jacket and threw it over Laura’s shoulders. Although it was summer it was actually kind of chilly, so Carmilla had been wearing it in case it got cooler, but now she figured Laura could use it more than she. Laura remained quiet but gave her a thankful nod and Carmilla grabbed her bike. They walked together in silence. Carmilla was okay with it, she didn’t want to press Laura with questions she didn’t want to answer. Although she was still steaming mad. Why were those boys hurting Laura? They had no right! Laura is the sweetest most wonderful person Carmilla has ever met and all they wanted to do was hurt her.

Her heart started to beat quickly and a warmness filled her body. It wasn’t hatred. Carmilla knew what hatred was like and this wasn’t it. It was something different and Carmilla didn’t like different. So to try and tear herself away from the feeling in her chest she decided to focus on the neighborhood around her. It was filled with small tightly packed houses and even smaller tightly packed yards. Carmilla never lived in a place like this growing up. When she was still in the muggle with her father and mother they lived in a small town with a house on the outskirts towards the woods. Big house, big yard. Now, well now she lived with Ollivander after taking the apprenticeship, but before she lived with her stepmother and her son Will.

Her thoughts were torn away from her, though, as she felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned to see Laura pointing to the house next to them. Laura walked up the steps to the house and Carmilla left her bike on the driveway. She followed Laura and when she opened the door the smell of lavender, honey, and cinnamon filled her nose. It smelled like Laura whenever she would force a hug onto Carmilla during the school year.

Carmilla smiled to herself and looked around. The house had a lot of things hanging on the walls and laying around on tables and such. It wasn’t necessarily unclean, everything loot kept together, it was like controlled chaos. The walls were covered with pictures and what looks to be springs and different types of clocks. It was odd, but Carmilla didn’t ask.

It was as though Laura had read her mind though. “My dad is a cop, but he has a small clock obsession. He thinks they are the coolest things. I like them, but the ticking gets annoying, so I just stay in my room most of the time.”

Laura grabbed Carmilla’s hand and pulled her through a hallway towards a door that swung open into what looked like a kitchen. The smell of chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate filled her nose. Carmilla gave a small laugh, this was pretty much the only thing she ever saw Laura eating at school, should have figured it was no different at home. Carmilla looked around and her eyes landed on a man sitting at a small table, big enough to fit 3 people at most, fiddling with some springs and cogs. He turned around and looked the two girls over with a stern face, it softened immediately though and he gave the two girls a large smile. Though, when his eyes settled on Laura he frowned. He had already started to talk though.

“Hello, I’m Laura’s dad, just call me Matthe- Laura what happened to your clothes?” Matthew said, looking at Laura’s right side which was covered in dirty water, which was straining her clothing.

Laura let out a sigh and shook her head, “When I was walking Carmilla up here I tripped and fell in a mud puddle. I’ll go upstairs and clean up. Carm, stay down here and eat some of the cookies. From the smell it seems like papa made some hot chocolate so please help yourself to that also.”

Carmilla nodded sat down across from Matthew. He looked up at her as Laura went upstairs to change. He pushed one of two cups of cocoa on the table towards her and shifted a plate of cookies towards her too. She didn’t want to seem rude, so she took a sip of the cocoa. Matthew seemed to be waiting for something. Once they heard a door close upstairs Matthew straightened up, “Okay, please tell me the truth. Did Laura fall, or was it the kids in the neighborhood?”

Carmilla was a little caught off guard by the question and looked at him a little shocked for second. He seemed a little on edge and he seemed to know the answer already. So Carmilla put down the mug of cocoa on the table and said quietly, “I think you already know the answer.”

He shook his head and cursed under his breath. He looked Carmilla in the eye and continued the conversation. “Yeah, I know, it’s just she refuses to ask for help… Is it like that at Hogwarts? Do the kids pick on her? Whenever she would write to me it would only ever be about school work. She didn’t talk about students or anything… besides you. She talked about you quite a bit.”

Carmilla smiled internally. Laura talked about her? It made her feel special. “Well, she’s made a few friends. There’s LaFontaine and Perry, they’re second years, well now they are third years. Then there’s the jolly red gai- I mean Danny and Kirsch. They all adore Laura. I’m mostly just there cause Laura dragged me along.” Carmilla had been looking at the table but when she looked up toward Matthew he had a huge grin on his face and looked very puppy-like.

“So she has made friends? Good, good. I knew that would be the best place for her. Her mother used to look forward to her being at Hogwarts, that is if she had powers. But I knew since she was little that she had them, that’s why I let her read her mother’s schoolbooks, because I knew.” Matthew smiled, it gave Carmilla a little comfort to know that her father was happy, thats why she decided to leave out how a few kids had been nasty to her, specifically the kids in Laura’s own house.

“Carmilla you can come up now!” Carmilla heard Laura’s voice from upstairs and smiled. Matthew nodded to Carmilla and she gave him a weak smile, then started for the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, follow i-hate-me-but-i-love-you for updates and other things involving the story.


	7. Laura's House Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took a while. Sorry about that, life got in the way of things and I lost my will to write. Hopefully I'll start updating more but I don't know for sure. Sorry it's so short too. The next one will probably be short too because that'll wind-up the Laura's house. chapter 9 should *should* be longer

Carmilla ran up the stairs to see Laura there with wet hair and new clothes on. She was wearing a tank top with nothing over it and a pair of jeans, it made Carmilla smile a little because of how cute she looked. Carmilla continued up the stairs until Laura was within reaching distance. To which Laura reached out and grabbed her hand and pulled her down a extremely small and narrow hallway. Matthew must have a bedroom on the main floor because the only two rooms that looked to be up here was Laura’s room, a bathroom, and some sort of cabinet.

Laura pulled her into a smallish room and closed the door behind her. Carmilla could smell lavender, cinnamon, and honey stronger here than it was downstairs, to which she noticed candles burning on Laura’s bedside table. She looked to Carmilla with a sort of awkward yet cute face and looked down, picking at her fingers, “So, uh, this is my room… What do you think?”

Carmilla looked around, it was painted a soft sky blue that made the entire atmosphere seem to calm down. As she looked around she noticed an entire side of a wall was blocked by a bookshelf, three to be exact. They were all filled to the top with books and there was a step stool beside one, no doubt that Laura used it to reach the top shelves. There was a small twin bed on the wall across from the shelves, it had a fluffy yellow and blue comforter on it with three large pillows that had the matching polka dotted design on the comforter on them.

There was a small desk on the wall next to the shelves with books laying on it with. It also had a few notebooks on it and a lap. Carmilla walked over to it to see the books laying on it were the books that they would need for next year along with quills and ink. The note books threw her off. One was labeled ‘History in Muggle World Compared to Wizard World’ another said ‘Current Events Wizard World compared to Muggle World’. This made Carmilla smile a little and she picked up one of them. She flipped through “I love it, now what are these?”

Carmilla saw Laura run to her in her peripheral vision and the notebook was snatched out of Carmilla’s hands. “It’s, uh, nothing… Just something I was doing to pass the summertime boredom. I was trying to compared the dates of significant Wizard happenings to significant muggle happening, I was trying to see if there was a pattern or if something set off another thing or, uh...”

Carmilla watched Laura struggle for words and become flustered, it made her let out a small snicker and Laura looked up at her, almost as though she was hurt. Carmilla immediately stopped and shook her head, “No no! I’m not laughing at it, it’s kind of cute, actually. No, I was just laughing about how, well, reporter-esque it sounded.”

“Reporter-esque?” Laura repeated the word, it rolling off her tongue in a confused fashion. “Well, I always like history and the news and stuff, it’s not really a magical job but maybe I could be a reporter? Like a magical one? Not like that crap the come from the Daily Prophet, but, like, actually things that people need to know about? Or, you know, something like that.”

Carmilla nodded and gave out another little laugh, “Yeah, or something like that.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Instead of doing normal 12 year old things, like board games or talking, they did what they normally did at Hogwarts. Now Laura didn’t have a eisel or good paints, but she did have paper and colored pencils. So Carmilla drew at her desk while Laura sat on her bed reading. But she was getting less reading done the longer the time went on, for her eyes kept drifting away from the page. They weren’t settling on one singular thing. Sometimes she would look at the book shelves, others times at the closet, but mostly out the window. After a few minutes of starring though she pulled her gaze away from the room and pushed it towards the desk. To which she caught a glimpse of what seemed like Carmilla staring at her. But when she got a full look her head was to the notebook.

They sat like that for a few hours. But to Laura it only seemed like minutes. Laura looked to a clock on her wall and saw that it read 5:07. Laura’s eyes widened in surprise and she looked to Carmilla who was still doodling away at the notebook. Laura wondered how late Carmilla wanted to stay. Laura knew she wanted her to stay for a while. Carmilla was like a safety blanket. Carm probably didn’t feel the same way. Probably that she was annoying. Laura shook that thought from her mind though, she didn’t want to think about that. Instead she got up and hovered over Carmilla’s shoulder.

Laura only caught a pair of coldly drawn black eyes before Carmilla quickly placed a hand over the drawing and looked up at her. “W-what?”

Laura was a little surprised at the action but didn’t question it. Instead she gave a small smile to the girl, “It’s starting to get late, when did Ollivander want you back at the shop?”

Carmilla shook her head, as though trying to absorb the question she was asked. “I, uh, well Ollivander didn’t give me a curfew. He doesn’t really care what I do as long as I help him run the shop.”

Laura nodded and looked down, she didn’t really know what to say. She didn’t want Carm to leave. Without thinking words were coming out of her mouth without realizing and it was too late, “Do you, I don’t know, wanna stay the night? Maybe?”

“Sure, Cupcake, whatever floats your boat,” Carmilla gave a small chuckle and nodded. To which Laura blushed, and it made Carm laugh even more.

 

That night Laura dropped the news that Carmilla was staying the night. To which even if Matthew wanted to protest he couldn’t because Laura was too hyped about it that it would break his heart to see her sad. That night Matthew made spaghetti with the girls’ help. In reality it was more of him cooking while the girls smeared tomato sauce one each others faces and reenacted different death scenes from movies and books.

During the dinner, Laura and Carmilla still covered in tomato sauce, they talked about their time at the school, mostly to each other but Matt still listened and was surprised at how lively it sounded, even more lively than in Laura’s letters. Maybe it was because Carmilla was here, no scratch that, it definitely was because Carmilla was here. Laura had always been a happy child, or well seemingly happy. Matt was never sure if she was just putting up a front or was legitimately that hopeful. He always hoped it was the latter but deep inside him he knew she was pretending. He always tried to do what was best for her but he couldn’t protect her from everything. 

Maybe this school was better for her than he originally thought. He had told her that he contacted Matilda when in reality she contacted him and told him it was the the best place for her. She said that if Laura didn’t go it would be denying her her birth right and lying to her. Then the thing happened with those kids on the last day of school, and then her hogwarts letter came. That’s when he finally agreed. Originally he thought if anything it was going to be worse because if normal kids didn’t like her what would magical ones think? He never knew why kids didn’t like her, maybe they sensed she was different, or maybe it was just Laura was a bit of a weird kid in general. But hearing her laugh with this girl in front of him and legitimately laughing with her he thought things would get better.

When dinner was done they put their plates in the sink and the two were about to run back up to Laura’s room but Matt caught Laura’s arm, “Hey, sweetie, can we talk for a second?” Laura looked up at him confused and nodded, he then turned to Carmilla and said softly, “Why don’t you go up to Laura’s room and get cleaned up? Laura will be up in a moment.”

Carmilla slowly nodded up at them and started up the stairs. Once he heard the door close he looked to Laura who was looking up at him worryingly. “Is something wrong?”

Matt shook his head and sat down at the table again. “It’s just you’re growing up so fast and I just can’t believe it. And I feel I’ve been unfair.” Laura at this point was looking at her father as though he’d gone senile. “Now, please don’t look at me like that, I may be a bit crazy but I’m not completely gone yet. It’s just you’re growing up and I feel as though I’ve been unfair in the fact I’ve given you very little privileges, and I just want to tell you that if you want you can go to Diagon Alley any time you want. I mean you’ll have to tell me first and-”

Before he could finish his sentence he felt skinny arms wrap around his neck and a whisper in his ear, “Thanks, dad.”

Suddenly, before he could realize what happened she was gone and there was footsteps going up the staircase. He smiled to himself and shaked his head, what did he just agree to? He got up and started cleaning the dishes, Laura’s plate clean as though she licked the plate. When he heard a meow behind him and he looked to see Laura’s weird looking cat behind him. So far him and the animal hadn’t really gotten along but Laura was taking good care of him and he didn’t get in the way of his clock tinkering so it didn’t bother him. The cat looked at him for a few seconds before nodding in what seemed approval and leaving to climb the stairs up to Laura’s room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, follow i-hate-me-but-i-love-you for updates and other things involving the story.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow my tumblr i-hate-me-but-i-love-you for updates I guess idk.


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